Medical Education

They're not asking for a soul shake, but most patients want their physician to at least shake their hand when first introduced and about half prefer to be addressed by their first name, according to new research from Northwestern University in Chicago. The study, published last week in the Archives of Internal Medicine, involved a nationwide telephone survey of 415 adults. In it, researchers at Northwestern found that 50.4 percent of the respondents preferred to be addressed by their first name; 23.6 percent wanted to be addressed by first and last name; and 17.3 percent preferred to be addressed by last name.

YOU COULD sense the tension as soon as we entered my grandparents' house at 806 Cathedral St. and began to ascend what looked to an impressionable 12-year-old like the Mount Everest of staircases. It led to the second-floor living quarters where, that year, we celebrated Thanksgiving.My grandfather, the first of three Warren Bucklers, came from a long line of prominent Baltimore healers and medical practitioners, a noble tradition upheld in my generation by my cousin, Dr. Billy Neill.They trace their medical lineage back to Dr. John Buckler, who enjoyed a large practice in the 1830s.

After seven years of planning and construction, the University of Maryland next week will unveil a $32 million medical library in downtown Baltimore that will be one of the largest in the nation, with technological features that will put it at the forefront of medical education.The university has set April 3 as the grand opening for the six-level, 190,000-square-foot Health Sciences and Human Services Library, built as part of a $1 billion state effort to turn the downtown campus into a center for the life sciences.

WASHINGTON -- Don't expect anything but a hemorrhage at the Treasury from that new program to counter the doctor surplus by paying hospitals to reduce the number of residency slots for the final phase of medical training.Reminiscent of the agricultural-support schemes that paid farmers for not growing crops, the medical plan was inspired by pTC an immutable law of American medical practice: More doctors mean more medical spending, despite the penny-pinching tactics of managed care. So, stop them before they can start hustling patients, the Washington strategists concluded.

More than most states, Maryland has been successful in containing the ever-rising costs of hospital care. Through a system of sharing the burden of paying for indigent care -- and paying for the essential and expensive role of teaching hospitals -- Marylanders as a group have avoided the skyrocketing costs that have plagued other states.But the uncontrolled growth of free-standing, unlicensed surgery clinics poses a danger. While these centers provide lower costs and greater convenience and comfort for many patients, they draw business away from hospitals -- especially patients with health insurance coverage.

Washington.--It's mainly old-timers who remember the house call, a humane arrangement in which doctors attended the bedridden at home, rather than having them stagger to their offices. House calls started to fade in the early postwar years, yielding to increasingly high-priced doctor time and medicine's reliance on X-rays and other diagnostic tools too weighty for travel.Today there's good reason to revive the house call, and especially to acquaint medical students with the problems and virtues of treating patients in their own beds.

Washington. -- Military bases die hard, if ever. The same goes for medical schools -- high-paying employers, with devoted alumni and great staying power. Mate the two institutions, and the offspring is a model of durability, the Pentagon's own full-fledged medical school, the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, in Bethesda.Targeted for termination by Clinton-Gore economizers as a relic of richer times, USUHS is hauling out every conceivable argument for staying in business.

At USUHSWell, Daniel Greenberg is at it again -- deceiving the public with misinformation and inflammatory articles that stretch the truth beyond recognition.Perhaps that is why his Washington newsletter is so popular -- people like to read the kind of trash contained in the gossipjournals, whether true or not.His "Doctors in Khaki" (Opinion * Commentary, March 23) focuses again on what he knows is an untruth -- that the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences is an expensive medical school.

Washington. -- The debate over health care reform has never been just about insurance -- as officials of the Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland know only too well.The major reform bills in the House and Senate included another kind of reform, affecting the future of academic medical centers and the valuable research and teaching they do. Looking for long-term financial security, which is increasingly threatened, the centers lobbied Congress for assistance. Lawmakers responded, adding provisions to health reform legislation that would, in effect, guarantee funding of medical research and teaching.

SEATTLE -- Future doctors may find themselves standing in the unemployment line instead of at the bedside, if some projections of doctor supply and demand turn out to be true, according to an American Medical Association official who spoke here this week.By 2000, the United States will have 163,000 more doctors than it needs, possibly even too many primary-care physicians, said Dr. M. Roy Schwarz, group vice president of medical education and sciences for the AMA.In addition to a large number of students entering medical school and the many residents being trained at teaching hospitals, nurses and physician's assistants are taking on a greater role in delivering basic care, Dr. Schwarz said.

For decades, medical students have been taught to treat the "standard" or "typical" patient, as if everyone reacts the same way to an illness or disease. But with the sequencing of the human genome, some medical educators have begun to adopt the view that there is no such thing as a "standard" patient and that everyone should be considered an individual with unique characteristics that influence his or her health, from age and genetic structure to their environment and place in society.

On May 7, 2009, LORRAINE C. (nee Byczynski), (71), went to eternal rest with the Lord. She died from Metastatic Breast Cancer. She is survived by her loving husband of 50 years, Robert A. "Bob" Thompson, Sr.; cherished mother of Dr. Robert A. Thompson, Jr. and his wife Jennifer and Rosemary Frank and her husband Theodore (Ted). Devoted grandmother of Abby, Robert, III and Ryan Thompson and Kelsey, Erica and Aly Frank. Beloved sister of Maryann Patti (Joe), Edward Byczynski (Gloria), Richard Byczynski (Maxine)

Dr. Emidio Anthony Bianco, who successfully combined careers in medicine and law, died Tuesday of complications from Parkinson's disease at Howard County General Hospital. He was 84. Dr. Bianco was born in Baltimore and raised on South Paca Street and Kinsey Avenue. After graduating from Polytechnic Institute in 1942, he enlisted in the Army. "His first love was medicine, which was sparked while serving as a medical technician with a M.A.S.H.-type unit in Germany," said a daughter, Jayne E. Cohill of Santa Rosa, Calif.

They're not asking for a soul shake, but most patients want their physician to at least shake their hand when first introduced and about half prefer to be addressed by their first name, according to new research from Northwestern University in Chicago. The study, published last week in the Archives of Internal Medicine, involved a nationwide telephone survey of 415 adults. In it, researchers at Northwestern found that 50.4 percent of the respondents preferred to be addressed by their first name; 23.6 percent wanted to be addressed by first and last name; and 17.3 percent preferred to be addressed by last name.

Dr. George Travers Gilmore, who treated generations of patients in Baltimore County during his five decades as a family physician, died of cancer Thursday at his Lutherville home. He was 79. Born and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., he graduated from St. Benedict's Prep School in 1945 and entered the Navy. At this same time, his parents moved to Baltimore, where he settled after his 1946 discharge from military service. He earned a premedical degree at the Johns Hopkins University and received his medical education at the University of Maryland.

Did you know?-- More than 1,000 American youngsters drown each year. -- Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research

Her smile was infectious, mirroring the sunlight that streamed through the skylights. She was like a butterfly, floating among her fellow medical students at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. For Chinwe Ajuba-Iwuji, it was a very special day. After four years of education, she and the other students would learn where they would be trained in medical specialties. The decisions would likely play a pivotal role in the course of their medical education and their lives. Ajuba-Iwuji was picked for an anesthesiology residency at Johns Hopkins - her first choice and another triumph in a life filled with extraordinary challenges.

Did you know?--About 1.5 million Americans sustain a traumatic brain injury each year. - Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research

MedCom Group hires Anne Jacobson and Christine Matsko Susan Torroella, president and chief executive officer of Columbia MedCom Group, has announced that the company has hired Anne Jacobson as a medical writer. Jacobson will be responsible for researching, writing and editing medical education materials, serving as liaison to authors and speakers, assisting speakers in preparing for events and ensuring scientific integrity in writing projects. Torroella also announced that Christine E. Matsko has been named account manager.

Work-hour cap adds to pressure hospitals face The recent article on the loss of accreditation of the Johns Hopkins internal medicine training program presents a fair range of opinions on the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education's (ACGME) work hours regulations for medical residents ("Hopkins residency program loses accreditation over labor rules," Aug. 27). However, it misses the real problem, which is the high cost of providing the excellent medical care the American public receives at academic training institutions.