Staff News Writer

Only days remain until Congress concludes its “lame duck” session. That’s not much time for lawmakers to address a long agenda—but support is building in the nation’s capital to eliminate Medicare’s sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula this year.

More than 80 percent of physicians under the age of 40 still are paying off their medical school loans, according to AMA Insurance’s National Work/Life Profiles 2013 survey. Nearly one-half of these young physicians carry a debt of $150,000-$200,000.

In the video, Arjun Srinivasan, MD, an expert from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and captain in the U.S. Public Health Service, discusses how physicians can prepare for and manage Ebola patients in hospital and ambulatory care settings.

Studies suggest diabetes prevalence has as much as tripled in recent decades, and data show about two in five Americans will develop type 2 diabetes at some point in their lives. Use National Diabetes Month this November to encourage your patients to stay healthy during the holiday season.

Two dozen physicians and spouses of physicians were elected to public office during the 2014 General Election in November, all graduates of educational programs provided by AMPAC, the AMA’s bipartisan political action committee.

Health care spending growth from 2009 to 2012 was below 4 percent each year, and data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) show the deceleration began in 2003, five years before the “great recession.” A new AMA review (log in) examines trends behind U.S. health spending and looks at possibilities for future spending growth.

Tomorrow’s doctors are learning more about socioeconomic status, gender, sexual orientation and other social determinants of health. Physicians nationwide support integrating more training on the social determinants of health into undergraduate medical education—they voted to make it AMA policy at the 2014 AMA Interim Meeting.

A special theme issue of JAMA takes a close look at cardiovascular health, with studies related to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease. The latest data show that nearly one in three American adults—approximately 70 million—have high blood pressure, and more than one-half of these adults don't have it under control.