Staff News Writer

AMA Affiliated Groups

News Writer,
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Written by members of the AMA Physician Communications team.

Medicare & Medicaid

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3 Min Read

Improve EHRs before expanding meaningful use, AMA tells ONC

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology issued a proposed rule containing voluntary certification criteria for EHR systems in 2015 to be used by physicians participating in the meaningful use program. The rule was to give vendors flexibility in upgrading their systems and offer a look at the 2017 edition. The AMA submitted comments on the proposed rule.

ChangeMedEd Initiative

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3 Min Read

Virtual patients, online games and real-time EHRs: The new med ed

As health care moves into the era of the supercomputer and electronic health records medical education is incorporating health information technology, virtual patients and more innovative learning methods into their curricula. Some of these ideas were shared at a consortium meeting for schools that received grants through the AMA’s Accelerating Change in Medical Education initiative.

Specialty Profiles

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3 Min Read

What specialty physicians need in new models of care

Innovative ideas that focus on specific diseases and patient populations could soon be tested with physician specialists through new care delivery and payment models the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) plans to support.

ChangeMedEd Initiative

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3 Min Read

How med ed is addressing the skills new residents may lack

Whether the “July effect” is real or simply lore, for medical students transitioning to residencies, this summer month is tremendously stressful. Internal medicine program directors have expressed concern regarding new interns’ skill sets and the lack of skill set standardization, according to survey results that appeared in the March issue of Academic Medicine. 

Health Equity

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3 Min Read

3 goals doctors are working toward to reduce health care disparities

The Commission to End Health Care Disparities discussed its plans to achieve better data collection and reporting at the National Minority Quality Forum 2014 Summit held this week in Washington, D.C.

Medicare & Medicaid

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2 Min Read

Where you need to go for Medicare claims data release assistance

As reporting about the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) recent release of physician Medicare claims data continues to cycle through the media, a new resource page from the AMA offers the essential information you need to know about the data release.

Scope of Practice

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5 Min Read

Team-based care advances across the states

Achieving the “triple aim”—providing the highest quality of care at the lowest cost possible while improving patient outcomes—is becoming more and more difficult as the patient population ages, chronic conditions become more prevalent and newly-insured patients flood the health care system.

Behavioral Health

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3 Min Read

Nation reaches "turning point" in addressing Rx abuse crisis

A remarkable development in the effort to solve the country’s prescription drug abuse crisis was evident last week at a national summit of governmental and public health leaders held in Atlanta. Federal officials, state attorneys general and the AMA all agreed on a needed change in focus to treatment and prevention.