I would never get on an airplane if I didn’t feel highly confident that the pilot was fully competent. In order to fly a commercial airplane a pilot has to undergo rigorous and continuous training and testing. I’d walk before flying with a pilot whose only credential was his assurance that he’d been diligently “keeping up…
Why Doctors, Like Airline Pilots, Should Not Be Completely Trusted.
January 22, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Three Reasons Why You Don’t Need To Feel Sorry For Doctors
January 9, 2015 by Leave a Comment
I’m not a doctor and I don’t have strong opinions about how doctors should be certified or, more to the point right now, what they should have to do to maintain their certification over the course of their careers. But recently this last topic– called maintenance of certification, or MOC– has become the subject of a…
Continuing Medical Education Payments To Physicians Will Be Exposed To Sunshine
December 16, 2014 by Leave a Comment
After a long and complicated struggle it now appears highly likely that industry will be required to disclose payments to physicians for continuing medical education (CME). This decision from CMS, which I am told by reliable sources is final, follows a long period in which CMS appeared to waver in its approach to incorporating CME into the…
A CME Program Begs The Question: Promotion Or Education?
June 2, 2013 by Leave a Comment
In recent years defenders of commercially-supported continuing medical education (CME) have claimed that the industry has cleaned up its act and that CME programs today are largely free of the abuses that were so common not so long ago. Perhaps. But there are still plenty of examples of programs that violate the fundamental principle that…
No Sunshine For Continuing Medical Education
February 1, 2013 by 1 Comment
After many long delays, CMS today released the final details of the Sunshine Act. Starting next September all pharmaceutical and device companies will be required to publicly report payments made to US physicians. However, there is at least one very major exception to this requirement. Although the initial draft of the rules stated that…
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