Supreme Court Hears EMTALA Case Around Emergency Abortion Access; NIH to Boost Pay for Early Career Scientists; Study Finds Decline in Full-Time Faculty Tenure-Track Positions; and Other Items of Interest
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court heard a case on whether the 1986 Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) can supersede states that restrict a pregnant woman from having an abortion if her health is in grave danger, reported NPR. The arguments focus on the notion of “stabilizing care” for health crises that may require an emergency abortion to protect the health of a mother and whether that medical care would open risk of criminal prosecution for physicians. The New York Times analyzed and discussed the differing views of the Supreme Court justices on emergency abortion access based on the arguments.
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The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is increasing pay for early-career scientists receiving its Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Awards by $4,500 above the current minimum salary level, but the boost still falls short of the recommended amount from an NIH advisory group, reported Science. Included in the change is a $1,000 raise for graduate students, bringing their minimum to $28,224, and a $500 increase in childcare subsidies for early-career researchers who are parents. In its coverage of the pay increase, Nature noted it could have a ripple effect that would affect pay and expenses in other areas, and that even those who support the pay increase have expressed concern regarding related research and personnel costs.
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A new study published in Academic Medicine found that tenure systems remain well established at U.S. MD-granting medical schools, but the percentage of full-time faculty on tenured or tenure-eligible tracks has declined over the last four decades, with troubling gaps in tenure-eligible appointments between men and women faculty and among faculty by race and ethnicity. The study was co-authored by William Mallon, EdD, AAMC senior director of strategy and innovation development, and Natalya Cox, MPH, AAMC research analyst.
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On a related note, AAMCNews discussed how tenure is declining in U.S. medical schools and whether the development could threaten academic freedom.
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Jeremy Farrar, the World Health Organization’s chief scientist, said the bird flu is an “enormous concern,” after an outbreak was found in dairy cows in the United States, reported the Washington Post. There is no indication the virus has the ability to jump from animals to humans, but public health officials are stressing the importance of closely monitoring.
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The Food and Drug Administration said it had detected viral particles of H5N1 avian influenza in grocery store milk, but it still believes the milk is safe to drink because the remnants of viruses are likely to have been killed during the pasteurization process, reported CNN. In related news, STAT discussed the amounts of H5N1 vaccine that would be needed in the event of a full blown bird flu pandemic, as well as questions around whether enough could be manufactured.
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Former CFAS representative and Advocacy Committee co-chair, and emergency physician David Sklar, MD, wrote an op-ed in AZ Central on the deadly consequences of rising heat in Arizona and potential solutions. “Patient after patient arrived by ambulance writhing and foaming at the mouth with body temperatures up to 110 degrees. Textbooks and articles I had read said these body temperatures were lethal. No one was expected to survive. But with rapid cooling in ice water baths and intensive care, many did. What I did not know was that for every patient that I treated who survived, there were 20 times as many who died at home, in parks, on dirt alleys, or in garages,” wrote Dr. Sklar. Dr. Sklar is also the former editor-in-chief of Academic Medicine.
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Due to market challenges in the post-pandemic environment, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center is laying off approximately 1,000 employees, just over 1% of its workforce, and the cuts mostly affect nonclinical administrative employees, reported Modern Healthcare.
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STAT explored how physicians at Mass General Brigham have felt devalued, disempowered, and unseen in the ongoing effort to merge two flagship Harvard-affiliated medical centers. The piece should resonate with many related discussions at CFAS meetings over the past few years that have touched on how the loss of physician autonomy can exacerbate burnout.
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Ravi I. Thadhani, MD, MPH, executive vice president for health affairs at Emory University and executive director of Emory’s Woodruff Health Sciences Center, and Anne Klibanski, MD, president and CEO of Mass General Brigham, contributed an opinion piece to STAT on the “existential crisis” facing academic medicine as the cost of operation and revenues become increasingly misaligned, noting that “rapid technological change and growing health inequity are compounding the crisis.” They offer several recommendations to address the ongoing crisis, including elimination of the “burden of facilities and administrative costs” built into research by changing research grant structure, rethinking reimbursement rates to take research costs into account, boosting entrepreneurship, diversifying donor bases, and adding efficiencies and integration into research functions.
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Becker’s Hospital Review covered how hospital and health system leaders are building the health care workforce pipeline through strategies such as “working more closely with high schools, community colleges, and other schools to help provide instruction and support and highlight the benefits of working in health care.”
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The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is finalizing nursing home staffing rules that will require hiring more nurses and aides while allowing the facilities years to do so, reported NPR. However, the new rules are less stringent than what some patient advocates have said is necessary for high-quality care.
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CMS also published two final rules to expand access in the Medicaid fee-for-service and managed care programs, aligning requirements in the Children’s Health Insurance Program with the Medicaid program, reported Becker’s Hospital CFO Report.
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A rule that would seek to make Medicare reimbursement easier for breakthrough devices may be coming in early summer, reported STAT.
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The Department of Health and Human Services has finalized a rule to establish a 340B administrative dispute resolution process, reported Becker’s Hospital CFO Report.
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Rates of long COVID-19 are elevated in men with Type 2 diabetes, reported Medscape UK in coverage of a study published in the Lancet. In other COVID-19 news, a study on COVID vaccines found a small signal of seizure risk for young kids, with experts saying the finding warrants further evaluation, reported MedPage Today.
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Cancer cases are on the rise in younger people and “although a significant majority are older adults, the rate at which adolescents are diagnosed with cancer has increased by roughly 1% every year since 1975,” reported the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
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A study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that hospitalized women are less likely to die or be readmitted if they are treated by women doctors, reported NBC News. And the Dallas Morning News covered how a shortage of Latino doctors hurts medical care for Latinos.
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With a potential U.S. TikTok ban coming into focus this week, researchers at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine and the University of Chicago published a paper in Otolaryngology showing that the majority of “health influencers” posting on a common condition — in this case, sinusitis — were inaccurate, noting in the paper that, “Less than half of videos posted by nonmedical influencers categorized as educational were factual (46.7%).” The researchers looked at 221 videos where almost half were published by “nonmedical influencers,” garnering over 300 million views and 1 million shares.
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Generative artificial intelligence (AI) can help doctors with administrative tasks, reducing burnout; more efficiently match potential participants to clinical trials; expedite drug development; and handle the time-consuming aspects of translating documents for non-English speaking patients and trial participants, reported CNBC in an article that covered the emerging benefits of AI in health care.
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The AAMC has published its advocacy agenda to address the maternal health crisis and advance birthing equity with recommendations to prevent maternal deaths, address inequities, and promote the health of pregnant patients. Key recommendations include diversifying, expanding, and extending the perinatal workforce through increased investment in Medicare-supported graduate medical education and workforce development programs; bolstering the maternity care system by addressing the historic financial challenges facing the hospital field; ensuring access to coverage and care by providing 12 months of continuous postpartum Medicaid coverage and limiting prior authorization during the perinatal period; promoting whole-person health by investing in innovative and holistic care delivery models, including integrated behavioral health; and fostering cross-sector partnerships to address the upstream social determinants of health.
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A new MedEdPORTAL Climate and Health Education Collection is geared toward helping educators and institutions with curricular innovations to address the impact of climate on health.
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The AAMC is collecting 55-word stories from fourth year medical students for an upcoming AAMCNews story. Graduating students are asked to submit reflections from any aspect of their medical school journey — the moment when they decided on a specialty, an interaction with a patient or professor, how they’ve changed, or what they found challenging or exciting. The deadline for submissions is May 3.
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The AAMC Center for Health Justice is seeking up to five collaborators (nonprofit organizations and/or individuals) who will work with the Center to produce their stories of environmental injustice over the next year. Applicants must be a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization or an individual who has been working with their community on an environmental justice issue for at least one year and is based in the United States (or U.S. territories). Interested applicants are encouraged to visit the website to view a recording of a recent webinar to learn helpful tips and information for completing their applications. The submission deadline is May 6.
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The AAMC will host a webinar on May 22 from 2-3 p.m. ET, “Navigating Critical Junctures: Professional Opportunities and Experiences.” The webinar will focus on exploring challenges and innovations associated with career exploration for students. General questions about this webinar can be sent to holisticreview@aamc.org.
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The AAMC will host a three-part webinar series in May where expert faculty will discuss the importance of cultivating leaders to foster and support inclusive excellence in academic medicine. The first webinar, “Developing Inclusive Leaders in Polarizing Times,” will take place on May 6 at noon ET. This series was developed in partnership with the AAMC Group on Diversity and Inclusion (GDI) and the Group on Women in Medicine and Science and is part of the AAMC IDEAS (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Anti-racism) Learning Series, which provides actionable information about diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies that members of the academic medicine community can put into practice.
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Rebecca Andrews, MD, has been named chair-elect of the American College of Physicians’ board of regents. Dr. Andrews is a professor of medicine in the University of Connecticut (UConn) School of Medicine and serves as the UConn Internal Medicine Residency Program’s associate program director as well as its director of ambulatory education. Dr. Andrews is a CFAS representative from UConn.
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Thomas Samuel “Sam” Shomaker, MD, has been named dean of the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine, effective July 1. Dr. Shomaker previously served as vice dean of JABSOM.
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Gregory Postel, MD, has been named senior vice president of health affairs and dean of the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. Dr. Postel is currently serving as the 18th president of The University of Toledo, a post he has held since July of 2020.
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Xuemei Huang, MD, PhD, has been named chair of the Department of Neurology at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, effective Aug. 1. Dr. Huang comes to UVA School of Medicine from the Penn State College of Medicine, where she has served as associate dean for physician-scientist development and chief of the Division of Movement Disorders. She is also the founding director of Penn State College of Medicine’s Translational Brain Research Center.
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Mekbib Gemeda, MD, has joined Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine as senior associate dean, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Dr. Gemeda joins Hackensack Meridian SOM from Eastern Virginia Medical School where he has served as vice president of Diversity and Inclusion for the past 10 years. He has been active in the AAMC for many years, including in the GDI.
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When you were a little kid, did you say you wanted to grow up to be a doctor or scientist? And as you matured, did you adjust expectations based on your understanding of what it took and what you wanted out of life? It turns out establishing a life goal relatively early in childhood and then being flexible with change points to a better outcome in attaining the education and training necessary to reach your goal, at least for the Icelandic group studied in this American Psychological Association-published research.
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And finally, an obvious solution to climate change may have been wafting under our noses all along. Researchers in Australia in their attempt to tackle certain realities of climate change, have proposed “low-emission” livestock as a potential solution. While there’s perhaps — say it after me — far artier language that could be used to understand what they mean by “low-emission cattle,” you probably get the idea. “Studies have found low emission cattle have inheritable genetic traits which can significantly reduce methane production if included in national breeding objectives,” said researcher and lead author Merideth Kelliher, regarding the paper published in Climate. What a gas!
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Visit the CFAS Resources page for an archive of the previous edition of CFAS News as well as our People of Academic Medicine page, which features a running list of academic promotions, appointments, and departures.
Your comments and news tips are always welcome. Please email them to Eric Weissman at eweissman@aamc.org.
Read the previous edition of CFAS News.
Eric Weissman
Senior Director, Faculty and Academic Society Engagement
AAMC
eweissman@aamc.org
www.aamc.org/cfas