AAMC requests nominations for
new Board of Directors
The AAMC has issued a request
for help in developing a slate of individuals to serve on the association's
new 17-member Board of Directors. Under proposed bylaws, which are
expected to be enacted in November, the Board of Directors will
be comprised of three officers of the AAMC (chair, chair-elect,
and immediate past chair), the AAMC president/CEO, the chair and
chair-elect of each AAMC membership council (Council of Deans, Council
of Teaching Hospitals and Health Systems, and Council of Academic
Societies), and seven at-large members including a medical student,
a resident, and a member of the public. Nominations should be submitted
to the AAMC by August 8.
AAMC comments on health IT bill
AAMC President and CEO Darrell G. Kirch, M.D., sent a letter on
July 23 to House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair John Dingell
(D-Mich.) and Ranking Member Joe Barton (R-Texas), thanking them
for their leadership in securing the committee's approval of secure
health information technology (HIT) legislation. However, the letter
also expressed concern over how a consent provision in the HIT and
privacy bill, known as the "PRO(TECH)T Act," might affect health
care quality and safety improvement efforts, among other activities.
Describing the negative impact of such a provision, the letter notes
that "this is an instance in which the right to privacy of an individual
patient conflicts head-on with the duty of health care providers
continually to assure and improve multiple aspects of the care they
deliver to all their patients."
AAMC backs telehealth measure
The AAMC recently sent a letter
to Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) endorsing the Medicare Telehealth
Enhancement Act of 2008, which Thompson co-sponsored. The letter
commends the bill for attempting to remove barriers "that impede
the expansion of telehealth services to rural and other underserved
populations," and acknowledges the potential of telehealth to "help
enable 100,000 teaching physicians and nearly 400 teaching hospitals
and health systems to share their knowledge and expertise with patients
beyond their physical walls."
New podcast for AspiringDocs.org
expert series
The AAMC recently created a new podcast for AspiringDocs.org,
a multimedia campaign to increase diversity in medicine. The latest
in the campaign's Meet the Experts podcast series explores the medical
school application process with Sunny Gibson, director of the office
of minority and cultural affairs at the Feinberg School of Medicine
at Northwestern University. The podcast series features various
experts in academic medicine discussing topics of interest to prospective
physicians.
Web tool intended to enhance research
transparency
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has created a new Web-based
tool that will provide public access to detailed information on
NIH research activities. Scheduled for a spring 2009 unveiling,
the Research, Condition, and Disease
Categorization (RCDC) system will sort more than 85,000 NIH-funded
projects into 360 categories. The RCDC will provide access to three
different types of NIH funding: extramural research grants, research
and development contracts, and intramural research. The organization's
research activities have always been available on the NIH Web site.
However, this new system is intended to provide more consistency
in the reporting and categorization of the projects.
On the move
Michael Young, M.H.A., F.A.C.H.E., has been selected as the new
CEO of Grady Health System in Atlanta. For the past three years
Young was CEO of the Erie County Medical Center Corporation. He
will assume the new position Sept. 1.
The Memorial Hermann Healthcare System in Houston has named Charles
D. Stokes, M.H.A., to succeed the retiring Dale St. Arnold as its
chief operating officer, effective in early September. Stokes had
served as president of North Mississippi Medical Center since 2005.
He will assume the new position in early September.
