Business of Medicine

Change Is Already Here

We read with great interest Dr. Steven Sim’s recent op-ed, “More of the Same: Why isn’t otolaryngology becoming more diverse?” in ENT Today (Viewpoint, Sept. 2010).

Resident Restructure: Attendings adjust to new work-hour rules

The new duty hour regulation from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) that limits first-year residents to 16-hour shifts has drawn a conflicted chorus of reactions from attendings, who have only seven months before the stipulation goes into effect.

New Quality Indicator: MOC promotes better care, ABOto director says

With greater scrutiny of doctors and easier access to information about doctors’ education, the American Board of Otolaryngology’s Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program is more important than ever, said Robert Miller, MD, executive director of the American Board of Otolaryngology (ABOto).

EHR Contracts Done Right: Get the most out of the government’s new adoption incentives

Need an incentive to implement an electronic health records (EHR) system in your practice? How about $44,000? That’s the amount the federal government is making available to eligible physicians as part of its effort to speed up the adoption of health information technology throughout the U.S. In fact, under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act), part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, billions of federal stimulus dollars are flowing to medical practices throughout the U.S. to help physicians set up EHR systems.

More of the Same: Why isn’t otolaryngology becoming more diverse?

As America grows and evolves, its face necessarily changes. Our country rests solidly on the idea that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness should be available to all. Our collective understanding that access to health care and healthy living are essential to that ideal happiness continues to mature. But while the population becomes more diverse and blended, cultural disparities in health care not only persist, they do not appear to be diminishing. Collectively, African-Americans, Hispanic Americans and Native Americans comprise over one-quarter of our population. Yet, in the year 2000, they made up less than 10 percent of the physician workforce. These numbers dwindle even more when we consider surgical subspecialties.

Generation Gap: Combating “fogeyphobia” in the workplace

In an address to the 2009 Combined Otolaryngological Spring Meetings in Las Vegas, neurosurgeon Harry Van Loveren, MD, chair of the department of neurosurgery at the University of South Florida, coined the term “fogeyphobia” to describe a tendency among older doctors to become reluctant to speak out against new surgical tools and techniques, out of fear of being viewed as old-fashioned.