News
IAFP Meeting
This year's fall meeting of the Idaho Academy of Family Physicians will be held at Cactus Pete's Resort Casino November 12th. Curriculum this year will be on hematology/oncology. The seven hour course will cover colon cancer screening, cervical cancer screening, skin cancer, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, issues with the immuno compromised patient, and palliative care.Please contact Neva at 208-323-1156 or register on-line at www.idahofamilyphysicians.org
Behind the Scenes on Education Grants
This past five years most industry dollars for CME has been in the form of educational grants. Senators Chuck Grassley and Max Baucus have asked a number of large drug makers to explain a marketing practice where the companies give money to state governments and other organizations in the form of grants. The drug companies call the awards "educational grants", but the senators are concerned that the dollars are more focused on product promotion than education.The senators say they want to know more about the practice to ensure that it's not just a "backdoor way to funnel money to doctors and other individuals who can influence prescribing and purchasing of particular prescription medicine, including off-label prescriptions." They said their inquiry of the drug manufacturers is based on reports that some companies have awarded these grants to health care providers as inducements to those providers to prescribe medications the companies produce. In other cases, such grants to state agencies may have prompted those agencies to develop programs leading to over-medication of patients at the expense of patient health or to unnecessary expense for taxpayers.
"We need to know how this behind-the-scenes funneling of money is influencing decision makers," Grassley said. "The decisions result in the government spending billions of dollars on drugs. The tactics look aggressive, and the response on behalf of the public needs to be just as vigorous."
"I support drug companies giving back to the community through grants for educational programs used to educate physicians, state governments, and health organizations about products that could lead to improved health," Baucus said. "However, I am concerned that some grants may be for purposes other than education. These grants need to be driven by good intentions instead of motivation for larger profits."
Grassley is chairman and Baucus is ranking member of the Senate Committee on Finance, which has legislative and oversight responsibility for the Medicare and Medicaid programs. The first-ever prescription drug program within Medicare will begin in January, and federal expenditures on prescription drugs through both Medicare and Medicaid are estimated to reach $100 billion in 2006.
Anderson Center - Wednesday, 8:00 a.m.
Mercy Medical Center - Wednesday, 12:30 p.m. - Winter Room
CHEERS (Children's Hospital Education Enrichment Review)
MEMBERSHIP: The following members were approved:
Upcoming Events:
Feb 17-20, 2006 Winter Clinics, Sun Valley Resort and Convention Center. Registration brochures will go out in November.
December 2005
January 2006
"To study the phenomena of disease without books is to sail in uncharted sea". William Osler
Reading has always been a prerequisite in medicine both for the sheer volume of information to assimilate and to keep abreast of new information. We are inundated with reading material both peer reviewed and throw away journals. Why then even think about reading books for recreation?
Educators today decry the lack of recreational reading among young people, especially young men. Given the competition from television, the internet, and video games it's no wonder few are reading books. Reading is a dynamic process requiring the reader to construct a fictional dream through the writer's words.
Physician authors have added to the library of fiction over the years, AJ Cronin and Summerset Maughan in the past and Michael Crichton today. Our own resident author, retired ophthalmologist, Howard Adkins recently released "Hannity's Curse", an excellent fictional read.
William Osler said, "It is astonishing with how little reading a doctor can practice medicine, but it is not astonishing how badly he may do it." He admonished his students to keep at their bedside such classics as the Bible, Shakespeare, Montague, and Oliver Wendell Holmes and to give a half-hour each day to reading these classics before retiring.
Today's young people entering medicine need heroes other than what they see in programs such as "Scrubbs" and "House" on TV. Literature may help them understand the sorrows and joys of patients whose lives they will be privileged to enter.
John J. Mohr, M.D.
St. Luke's Regional Medical Center - Wednesday 8am, Anderson Center
Mercy Medical Center - Wednesday 12:30pm
VA Medical Center - Thursday 8am, AW Horsley Learning Ctr.
St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center - Friday 8am, Centennial Room
2 Michael Zemel, PhD, Professor of Nutrition and Medicine; Director, The Nutrition Institute, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN.
9 Robert Kaniecki, M.D., Assistant Professor of Neurology; Director of the Headache Center at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA.
2 Michael Zemel, PhD, Professor of Nutrition and Medicine; Director, The Nutrition Institute, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN.
9 Robert Kaniecki, M.D., Assistant Professor of Neurology; Director of the Headache Center at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA.
Tumor Boards
Mercy Medical Center - Tuesday, 12:00 noon
Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center - Thursday, 12:00 noon
Breast Care Panel-Saint Alphonsus RMC - Tuesday, 7:00 a.m.
St. Luke�s Regional Medical Center - Tuesday, 12:00 noon
Breast Tumor Board-St. Luke�s RMC - Thursday, 7:00 a.m.
MSTI Pediatric Tumor Board - 2nd & 4th Wednesday, 12:00 noon
Meridian Tumor Board - 1st & 3rd Thursday, 12:00 noon
1st, 2nd, 4th, Thursday, 8 a.m., Anderson Center - Ada -2
Provisional Membership: Savita Hegde, M.D.; Christopher Goulet, M.D.; Maias Morris, M.D.; Brian Matteson, M.D.; Andrew Baron, M.D.; Angela House, D.O.; Heidi Bendorf Chasan, M.D.; Ronald Coen, M.D.; Andrew Olnes, M.D.
Nov. 15 Legislative Night, Red Lion Downtowner, 6:00 p.m.
Ada County physicians will have a chance to meet their legislators and discuss 2006 legislative issues.
2 Update on the Left Ventricular Device, James Blank, MD
7 Best of the AHA, J. Brent Muhlestein, MD
14 Managing Type II Diabetes, Steve Edelman, MD
16 Idaho Epidemiology Update, Chris Hahn, MD
21 Rehab for the Brain Injured Patient, Nancy Greenwald, MD
4 Idaho Epidemiology Update, Chris Hahn, MD
6 Pediatric Derm Update, Matthew Bender, MD
11 Update on Epilepsy, Robert Wechsler, MD
13 Smoking Cessation, Suzanne Allen, MD
20 Crowe Lectures in Dermatology, Speaker TBA
25 Alcohol Addiction, Michael Carlton, MD
2 Dietary Calcium and Dairy Modulation of Adiposity and Obesity Risk, Michael Zemel, PhD
9 Headache Management, Robert Kaniecki, MD
16 New ATS Guidelines for Pneumonia, Thomas Coffman, MD
23 Prostate Cancer Update, Steve Smith, MD
30 Trigeminal Neuralgia, Stephen Asher, MD and Bruce Anderson, MD,Phd
2 Dietary Calcium and Dairy Modulation of Adiposity and Obesity Risk, Michael Zemel, PhD
9 Headache Management, Robert Kaniecki, MD
16 New ATS Guidelines for Pneumonia, Thomas Coffman, MD
23 Prostate Cancer Update, Steve Smith, MD
30 Trigeminal Neuralgia, Stephen Asher, MD and Bruce Anderson, MD,Phd
3 Sleep Disorders, James Baker, MD
10 Infections in the Elderly, Sky Blue, MD
17 What's Hot & Cold in Cardiac Arrest, Alice Brownstein, MD
24 NO CONFERENCE
4 Pediatric Dentistry, Toby Merrriman, DMD
11 Hypertension Therapy, Arnold Silva, MD
18 Evaluation and Management of Anemia, Kerry Pulver, MD
25 NO CONFERENCE
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