For the healthcare bloggers among us: Envision Solutions is conducting a survey of healthcare bloggers. I’m not entirely sure Capsules qualifies, but what the heck, I’ll give my two cents. If you have a healthcare blog, you might want to participate, too.

From Anne Taylor-Vaisey:

Two new issues of medical education journals have been published in the past week. Have a look here.

Check out this article from the Amherst Times. It explores whether or not it’s enough to keep the per-doc lunches on the cheap side in return for allowing pharma reps access to give their pitches. One quote:

“It was almost a game, and it was unbelievable the animosity they would show if you did not bring the right kind of food, or if it was the third time they had pizza that week.”

One more:

“I‘d say that lunches are going to be one of the last things to go,” Dr. Goodman said. “The interesting thing is that it‘s generally not something doctors are ashamed about. That‘s why I find this thing so fascinating. They don‘t think they‘re doing anything wrong.”

Are they?

From the Accreditation Council for CME:

Updated Procedures for Handling Complaints/Inquires:

The ACCME has approved an updated Procedure for Handling Complaints and Inquiries Regarding Accredited Providers (pdf) .  (This document may also be viewed by visiting the “Accreditation Process” page on www.accme.org and using the links found in the “Measuring Continuous Compliance through ACCME Monitoring” section.)



Update to Element 3.2: Business and Management Practices

Recent California legislation addresses cultural and linguistic competencies in the educational content of CME (California Assembly Bill 1195).  The ACCME expects that accredited providers located in California will be in compliance with all applicable California state laws regarding continuing medical education, including this new legislation.  ACCME‘s Element 3.2 has been updated to incorporate this expectation.  Click here for more information.




New Frequently Asked Questions

ACCME has added several new FAQ‘s and answers to the “Ask ACCME” section of its website.  Subjects of new FAQ‘s are:

Planning and implementing “teaching in CME” activities

Requirements for disclosure of relevant financial relationships to the provider (SCS2.1)

Situations in which individuals refuse to disclose (SCS2.2)

Providers‘ responsibility for a mechanism to resolve Conflicts of Interest (SCS2.3)

Uniquely acknowledging different levels of commercial support (SCS3.1)

Electronic signatures in written commercial support agreements, and electronic commercial support application systems (SCS 3.4, 3.5 and 3.6)

Combining requests for commercial support with promises for exhibit/advertising opportunities (SCS 4.1)

Click here for more information.

In a $41 million deal, WebMD is planning to buy ” the interactive medical education, promotion and physician recruitment businesses of Medsite.” It’s expected to be complete by September.

From MM&M News.

I love this one:

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty called for a two-year moratorium on DTC drug ads so the FDA can toughen their oversight, the Associated Press reported.



“These advertisements in many instances are really ridiculous — in my opinion silly,” Pawlenty said during a news conference held in the Minnesota capitol of St. Paul.




The Republican governor said the ads contain little useful information and lead consumers to misguided self-diagnosis. He blamed the ads for rising prescription drug costs, stating he would support an outright ban if it would hold up in court.

From MM&M News.

According to Irish Medical News:

The long-awaited Medical Practitioners Heads of Bill has been lashed in the media for caving into the medical profession on retaining self-regulation and for, it seems, maintaining private misconduct hearings.

Compared to Micheál Martin‘s proposals published two years ago, Tánaiste and Health Minister Mary Harney‘s proposals do not seem as radical but do increase the accountability of the profession.

Here’s the CME part:

Minister Harney has said that she envisages doctors having to undergo a reaccreditation process through training bodies every five years, although this is not included in the published Heads of Bill.



It does, however, state that the Council may recognise medical education and training bodies and work with them and with the HSE on assisting the Council to ensure ongoing standards and competence.

According to this press release,

The Postgraduate Institute for Medicine (PIM) is pleased to announce that Jan Schultz, RN, MSN, has joined the growing team at the company‘s Englewood, Colorado, headquarters. Ms Schultz is the Director of Educational Outcomes and Accreditation and will be leading the company‘s new educational outcomes measurement division. In this role, she will be spearheading the development and implementation of methodologies and tools to measure the impact of continuing education activities that PIM jointly sponsors with their educational partners. These activities focus on the continuing professional development of physicians, nurses, pharmacists and other healthcare professionals.



Michael Lemon, MBA, President of PIM and a leader in the Continuing Medical Education (CME) industry, states: “In the current environment of regulatory and public scrutiny, it is critical that the CME community generates defensible data demonstrating that our educational activities make a difference in physician knowledge and performance. Physicians and other healthcare providers who participate in our activities may some day care for one of our friends, associates or loved ones. Our new outcomes initiative will allow us to confidently say that what we do makes a difference in the quality of that care.”

This is a good sign, I think. I hope to see more news like this moving forward.

Iraqi nurses and corpsmen are learning how to deal with parasites and diseases caused by drinking impure water, according to this article. U.S. Navy doctors are training them in the necessary skills. From the article:

The training, which consisted of several hours of classroom time and practical application, is designed to teach the soldiers how to provide emergency-trauma care for patients in a combat zone.



Perhaps most importantly, the group of a dozen or so Iraqi medics and nurses learned ways to stop severe blood loss - one of the important skills medical personnel must master in a combat zone, according to the American medical professionals here.




“Probably the most important step while providing emergency-trauma care is to immediately stop the bleeding,” said Navy Cdr. Tara J. Zieber, the medical director for the surgical suite here.




Blood loss caused by combat wounds, such as gun shot wounds and shrapnel from roadside bombs, is deemed as one of the top killers of Coalition and Iraqi military forces in Iraq.

Here’s an interesting Q&A with Dr. Paul Woods, head of worldwide promotional regulatory affairs department for AstraZeneca, U.K., about the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers’ Association’s pharma marketing code. A snip:

The IFPMA code allows for promotional aids to be given as gifts like pens, sticky pads and small medical related gifts. It stipulates that those gifts must be related to the practice of medicine or pharmacy. It must also be something, which is acceptable and used in the doctor’s professional practice and of minimal value. Pharma companies cannot give gifts for the personal benefit of a doctor. The new IFPMA code brings in a new category of gift, which has not been separated out before and that is cultural gifts. There are low value gifts that can be given during religious festivals. It would be seen rude or against the culture of that country for companies not to do that.