The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) has reduced extended duty hours for residents, which now cannot exceed 16 hours unless a five-hour nap is provided between 10:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m. The proposed requirements were published June 23 in the New England Journal of Medicine. After five-hour nap, residents may continue for up to nine more hours for a total of 30 hours.

An estimated 1.5 million medication errors occur each year and according to the Institute of Medicine (IOM), e-prescribing may be the key to reducing these risks.

The current healthcare environment and significant advances in mobile and internet technology are changing the way physicians practice medicine. It is no longer about whether physicians are online, but rather how they are online.

The Senate passed a bill June 18 to block the 21 percent cut to fix to the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula for six months, after failing to pass larger tax extender legislation that also included the Medicare provision.

If employees at academic medical centers "dont eat anything and tell everything" with regards to industry interactions, it will keep them out of trouble, said Julie A. Freischlag, MD, who explained that this is the catchphrase learned by Johns Hopkins after evaluating its industry policies, at a presentation at last weeks Society of Vascular Surgery (SVS) annual meeting in Boston.

Forum Health, based on Youngstown, Ohio, and its affiliated entities filed a court motion today to sell its hospitals and other assets to Ardent Health Services, a Nashville, Tenn., hospital company, beginning a complex process to exit bankruptcy.

BOSTONIndustry relations play a key part in the success of private practices, and while new transparency laws are meant to make the relationships between industry and physicians more ethical, in reality, they have the potential to hurt more than they may help, said Russell H. Samson, MD, of the Florida State University Medical School in Sarasota, Fla., during a presentation at the 2010 Society of Vascular Surgery (SVS) annual meeting on June 10.

While a majority of ischemic stroke patients arrive during the "golden hour"60 minutes of less after the onset of symptomsstill those who arrive earlier get treated slower than those who arrive later, proving that more educational programs to make the public aware of stroke symptoms and the importance of early arrival to the emergency department (ED) are needed, according to a study published online June 3 in Stroke.