Categories
health policy Health Politics

“The AMA (and the AAMC) Does Not Speak For Us.” – Oh, Yes They Do!

Mike Magee President-Elect Trump’s nomination of Rep. Tom Price for HHS Secretary has been ethically compromised from the start. The NEJM article last week, penned by the current and former department heads for HHS, simply defined the myriad of issues that undermine his candidacy in black and white. The AMA and AAMC’s bullish recommendations of […]

Categories
health policy Health Politics HHS

Why Did The AMA Support Tom Price?

Mike Magee Not a few health professionals have been asking themselves, “Why did the AMA support  Tom Price for head of HHS”? Their concerns took voice in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine in a piece titled “Care for the Vulnerable vs. Cash for the Powerful – Trump’s Pick for HHS”. In the article, […]

Categories
healthcare reform

AMA Signals Donald Trump (and Tom Price): “Enter At Your Own Risk.”

AMA member Tom Price The AMA took an unusual step this evening when it released the open letter below addressed to Congress, warning against removal of Obamacare without a suitable replacement. While addressed to Congress, the message is clearly intended for President-elect Trump, and secondarily to hard-liner orthopedist Tom Price. The latter has the support […]

Categories
Amercan Medical Association medical education pharmaceuticals

Testosterone: Another Case of Physician Enabled Drug Abuse

Ad From MedicineNet.com Mike Magee Is testosterone the next Oxycontin? It certainly has many of the same earmarks. It’s widespread abuse is being aided and abetted by sloppy prescribers. Its’ benefits are being exaggerated and its’ risks understated. It is associated with heavy marketing by pharmaceutical companies and a range of profit seeking intermediaries. And […]

Categories
health care reform health reform

The Three Pillars of the Medical-Industrial Complex – and the Physician. Part 5. Decoupling Research.

VIEW ENTIRE SERIES Mike Magee Historically, for a century since the Flexner report, some 40 premier academic health systems have been the masters and the model for American health delivery, constantly reinforcing the three-prong definition of the ideal senior level “thought leader” and successful academic physician – researcher, teacher, clinician. But in 2009, AHA president, […]

Categories
Amercan Medical Association

Iglehart and Thompson: Does the AMA Need “A Different Model of Advocacy”?

John Iglehart and Jeff Thompson MD The AMA’s vigorous opposition this week to the FDA’s consideration of mandating training for opioid prescribers to curb the current opioid epidemic (which the AMA’s liberal policies toward specialty designation and pharmaceutical underwriting helped create), called to mind the words in 2009 of Gundersen-Lutheran neonatologist and CEO, Jeff Thompson in […]

Categories
physician Physician Behavior

The Physician Psyche – An Existential Crisis of Our Own Making

Mike Magee The medical journals these days are replete with analyses of the latest health reform measures, and their negative impact on the physician psyche. It would be easy to simply connect the dots, and say that physician discontent is the result of ill-advised organizational changes. But, in reality, this problem has plagued the profession […]

Show Buttons
Hide Buttons