Announcements and Conferences

Ethics, Professionalism, and Human Rights Committee Sessions Scheduled for Internal Medicine 2010

4/22/2010 11:15 AM – 12:45 PM
PN 027 Ethical Challenges: Do We Have An Ethical Duty To Provide Care?

 

Virginia L. Hood, MD, MPH, FACP (Moderator)
Professor of Medicine
University of Vermont

Faith T. Fitzgerald, MD, MACP
Professor of Medicine
Associate Dean for Humanities and Bioethics
Bioethics Program
University of California Davis Health System

David A. Fleming, MD, MA, FACP
Director, MU Center for Health Ethics
Professor of Clinical Medicine
University of Missouri School of Medicine

  • Do ethical, moral, or religious beliefs of physicians and other health care providers supersede their duty to care for patients?
  • Does the physician have an ethical duty to treat during a pandemic?
  • Is patient noncompliance with treatment recommendations (e.g., failure to stop smoking or lose weight, refusal to take drugs due to unwanted side effects) a legitimate reason to terminate a patient-physician relationship?
4/22/2010 2:15 PM – 3:45 PM
MTP 075 Pain Management in the Hospitalized Patient

 

Janet L. Abrahm, MD, FACP
Dana Farber Cancer Institute

  • Identify opioid and non-opioid pharmacologic interventions.
  • State the role of equianalgesic dosing.
  • List potential adverse effects of pharmacologic interventions and associated management approaches.
  • Identify non-pharmacologic interventions.
4/23/2010 11:15 AM – 12:45 PM
MTP 074 Spirituality in End-of-Life Care: What is the Physician’s Role?

 

Steven A. Levy, MD, FACP
Clinical Professor of Internal Medicine Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine

  • How do science and spirituality complement one another in the healing process and what is the physician’s role in helping patients address spiritual issues at the end of life?
  • What can spirituality offer as a source of therapeutic intervention for patients at the end of life?
  • What are some practical steps for helping patients address spiritual issues at the end of life?
4/23/2010 2:15 PM – 3:45 PM
PN 029 Ethics Year in Review

 

Clarence H. Braddock III, MD, MPH, FACP (Moderator)
Associate Professor of Medicine
Associate Dean, Medical Education
Director, Clinical Ethics
Stanford University School of Medicine

Thomas H. Gallagher, MD, FACP
Associate Professor of Medicine, Bioethics and Humanities
University of Washington

Vincent E. Herrin, MD, FACP
Associate Professor of Medicine
Divisions of Hematology and Oncology
Director, Medicine Residency Program
University of Mississippi School of Medicine

  • What are the pressing bioethical issues for internists today?
  • How are emerging ethical issues affecting patient care?
  • What should practitioners keep in mind when confronting these issues?
4/24/2010 2:15 PM - 3:45 PM
PN 028 Ethics for Expert Medical Witnesses

 

Lee J. Dunn, Jr., Esquire (Moderator)

Reid F. Holbrook, Esquire

Alejandro Moreno, MD, MPH, JD, FACP, FCLM
Associate Director Internal Medicine Residency Program
University of Texas Medical Branch Austin Programs
University Medical Center at Brackenridge

  • What qualifications are required in order to serve as an expert witness?
  • What are the standards of evidence for a clinician’s testimony as an expert witness? Are there different standards for different kinds of cases?
  • Discuss the professional obligation of an expert witness to maintain confidentiality.

National Healthcare Decisions Day

Friday, April 16, 2010

Join the American College of Physicians (ACP) and more than 700 other national, state and community organizations to ensure that all adults with decision-making capacity in the United States have the information and opportunity to communicate and document their healthcare decisions. More than 10,000 Advance Directives were completed on the National Healthcare Decisions Day (NHDD) and more than 130,000 members of the general public participated in NHDD events. This year the Third Annual National Healthcare Decisions Day will be held on Friday, April 16, 2010.

  • Why is advance care planning important?
  • What do I need to know about treatment options?
  • How do I talk to others about my future healthcare decisions?
  • Who should I choose to speak for me in the event that I cannot speak for myself?
  • How do I document my healthcare preferences and choice of person to express my wishes?
  • What is required for my advance directive to be legally valid?

Information about the National Healthcare Decisions Day or Advance Directives is available online. For more information about advanced care planning and documents that meet individual state requirements see here.

The following are links to ACP resources for advance health care planning:

Where You Live Matters When You're Seriously Ill; State-by-State Report Card Shows Midwest Leads, South Lags; For-Profit and Public Hospitals Trail Too

New York, NY (Oct. 2, 2008) - America does a mediocre job caring for its sickest patients. The nation, says a new report, gets a C.

Hospital palliative care programs make patients facing serious and chronic illness more comfortable by alleviating their pain and symptoms and counseling patients and their families.

Only Vermont, Montana and New Hampshire earned an A, according to America's Care of Serious Illness: A State-by-State Report Card on Access to Palliative Care in Our Nation's Hospitals, a report based on a study in the October 2008 issue of the Journal of Palliative Medicine. Three states — Oklahoma, Alabama and Mississippi — got an F.

"The good news is that hospitals nationwide have implemented palliative care programs quickly over the last six years," said R. Sean Morrison, MD, director of the non-profit National Palliative Care Research Center and senior author of the study. "The bad news is that if you live in the South or you have to rely on public or small community hospitals, you're in trouble."

Ninety million Americans are living with serious illnesses such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, Parkinson's, stroke and Alzheimer's. As the baby boomers age, this number will more than double over the next 25 years.

"Americans are living longer — but with serious illnesses," said Dr. Diane E. Meier, director of the Center to Advance Palliative Care and co-author of the study. "Without palliative care, people with serious illnesses like cancer often suffer unnecessarily from severe fatigue, pain, shortness of breath, nausea and other symptoms from their disease and treatments."

The study suggests that in states with more palliative care programs, patients are less likely to die in the hospital; don't have to go to the intensive care unit as much in the last six months of life; and spend fewer days in intensive care or the coronary unit in the last six months.

That also saves hospitals money, which could help lower health care costs.

The Center to Advance Palliative Care (capc.org, getpalliativecare.org) and The National Palliative Care Research Center npcrc.org are affiliated with Mount Sinai School of Medicine and are dedicated to increasing quality palliative care services.

Last updated: 10/13/08

New ACP Online Clinical Information Page

New ACP Online Clinical Information Page
Sneak a peek at ACP's new and improved Clinical Information page! Test drive the beta version of our redesigned Clinical Information landing page, give us your feedback, and help us make it as easy to use as possible.

Your Opinion Counts

Your Opinion Counts

Twice a year, ACP participates in a journal readership survey of random internists. If you receive one of these surveys in the mail, please indicate if you read our journals and answer the questions about your reading habits of our journals.

Your voice in these surveys is very important to ACP and enables us to continue to produce the high-quality publications that you expect.
Find out more.