Physicians

The story of a 24-year-old Georgia graduate student fighting a flesh-eating disease has prompted a microbiologist with the Veterans Affairs Maryland Health Care System to speak out about the infection. Aimee Copeland lost most of her left leg after the flesh-eating bacteria necrotizing faciitis is believed to have entered a cut on her leg, according to the Associated Press, which reports she may also have to have her fingers amputated. The waterborne bacteria Aeromonas hydrophila is believed to have caused the infection.

An article in the May 4, 1912 edition of The Argus reported on the latest incident in a frightening series of fatal shootings in the area. The residents of Catonsville are alarmed over a number of valuable dogs which have been shot and killed within the last two weeks and efforts are being made to apprehend the guilty persons. Several days ago, a valuable setter dog belonging to Dr. Walter A. Low was killed with a shotgun. ***** Gudgeon fishing along the Patapsco river at Relay has caused a flurry of excitement among the anglers, and every day this week the banks of the river were lined with fisherman.

Congressman John Sarbanes had an excellent letter on the shortage of primary care physicians in Maryland (Readers respond, June 18 Baltimore Sun). His proposal for a public service loan forgiveness option is a step in the right direction to encourage physicians to enter primary health care practice. However student loan burden is a vast understatement of the true costs of becoming a primary care physician. In addition to medical school tuition, there is forgone income for four years of medical school, reduced income for three years of residency training and accrued interest on all of the above amounts.

In a small, rural, rust-belt town there sits a nondescript office building not far from the town square. The building is an unassuming amalgam of storefronts, offices and vacancies. Near one of the offices, there hangs a shingle: "Psychiatrist's Office. " Patients arrive faithfully, dutifully awaiting the chance to receive comprehensive, compassionate care and the most appropriate medicine for their maladies. My mother runs this clinic, striving to provide the best and most cost-effective medicine possible.

The Maryland Board of Physicians, which has faced scrutiny in recent months because of its backlog of cases and other problems, is getting a new leader, state health officials said Wednesday. Carole J. Catalfo will begin work as the executive director Feb. 21, according to Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein, secretary of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. "Carole Catalfo is the right person at the right time for the Board of Physicians," Sharfstein said. "She brings both deep experience in regulatory compliance and professional oversight and a fresh perspective on the challenges facing the board.

The chairman of the state Board of Physicians, which was slammed in a recent legislative audit for its dysfunction, told a panel of lawmakers Wednesday that it could get on track in another year by hiring an outside consultant and instituting long-awaited fixes. Several lawmakers said they've waited years for the board charged with protecting the public from bad doctors to clear a backlog of cases, institute sanctioning guidelines for doctors and develop transparent and consistent practices.

The state Board of Physicians Tuesday suspended the license of a Salisbury pain doctor, who the board said had not been using proper safeguards in prescribing opiates. Separately, state health officials had suspended Dr. Brent R. Fox's authority to write prescriptions for opiates and other controlled dangerous substances last week after their own investigation showed he was prescribing drugs in amounts outside of standards and was not conducting thorough exams of patients. The new action means the doctor can't practice medicine in Maryland for now. The doctor had been referred to the state by a managed-care organization with which Fox was affiliated, and the state has become more aggressive in tackling abuse of highly addictive painkillers.

St. Agnes Hospital announced the induction of nine doctors to the Healing Hands Society. The physicians were honored for clinical excellence and leadership plus service to the community and their hand imprints were added to a recently unveiled wall. Those recognized were Dr. Karen Broderick, Dr. James Castellano, Dr. Michael Ellis, Dr. Keith Falcao, Dr. Deepak Merchant, Dr. Arturo Santos, Dr. William Signor III, Dr. Willard Standiford and Dr. Michael Zatina.

The Johns Hopkins University and Milles, Oken and Seals have created a partnership expanding the physicians' internal medicine practice in Columbia.The partnership, announced yesterday, gives Hopkins a minority interest in the Howard County practice.In return, Hopkins agreed to establish specialty clinics, preventive care programs and a clinical research center staffed by Hopkins faculty and Howard County physicians.Hopkins said it will lease space at 5900 Cedar Lane in Columbia, near Howard County General Hospital, to provide space for the clinics.

Choosing a physician can be a little like selecting a new car or stereo system. You ask friends or family for recommendations, then shop around for the best deal. Of course, it's not the quality of music at stake here, but your very health and well-being.Still, shopping around is considered the best way to find thright doctor for you."People should approach health care as consumers, to foster a mutual responsibility model of care, not the former model of dependency or a parent-child relationship," says Dr. Frank Claudy, chief of the Department of Family Practice at Maryland General Hospital.

The state of Maryland is seeking doctors willing to practice in needy areas of the state, in exchange for up to $50,000 to repay student loans. The Maryland Loan Assistance Repayment Program was launched in 1996 and 157 primary care doctors have gone through the Program. Currently, 30 are employed in Baltimore city and county and Anne Arundel, Garrett and Worcester county. “Having a sufficient supply of primary care physicians across the state is critical to improving the health status of Maryland citizens,” said Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein, secretary of the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene , in a statement.

Dr. Mark R. Geier, a Rockville doctor accused of improperly treating children with autism, has been ordered by the state Board of Physicians to stop practicing medicine while his license is suspended. The doctor's license was suspended in April after the board concluded his hormone and chelation therapy endangered the children in his care. But the board in a new "cease and desist" order this week accused the doctor of refilling prescriptions for at least three patients in violation of the suspension.

The University of Maryland School of Medicine will use a five-year $877,000 grant  on a program to increase the number of students who enter primary care fields. The school said Monday it will create a primary care track that will allow students to work one-on-one with faculty from family medicine, pediatrics, internal medicine and other primary care specialties. The new program is being developed as health care reform is expected to put further pressure on primary care doctors.

The Maryland Board of Physicians, which has faced scrutiny in recent months because of its backlog of cases and other problems, is getting a new leader, state health officials said Wednesday. Carole J. Catalfo will begin work as the executive director Feb. 21, according to Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein, secretary of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. "Carole Catalfo is the right person at the right time for the Board of Physicians," Sharfstein said. "She brings both deep experience in regulatory compliance and professional oversight and a fresh perspective on the challenges facing the board.

Dr. Scott Rifkin says the Baltimore Jewish Times "has a long and distinguished history and deserves to be saved" as its parent company is mired in a contentious bankruptcy. So he did what he's known to do, when he feels the time is right: He jumped in. Rifkin, 52, an Owings Mills physician and health care entrepreneur who is the managing partner for Mid-Atlantic Health Care LLC, has taken the lead in a group of investors proposing to become majority owners of the Times' publisher, Alter Communications Inc. — a plan to which a key creditor has objected.

Two doctors who Maryland authorities say botched an abortion last year in Elkton have been indicted on murder charges - in what appears to be the first use of the state's fetal homicide law involving a medical professional performing surgery. "We're in uncharted territory," Cecil County State's Attorney Edward D.E. Rollins said Friday. He declined to comment further because the indictment remains sealed until the suspects are arraigned in Maryland. They were arrested Wednesday in New Jersey and in Utah.

The old adage about the pot and the kettle comes to mind when surveying the accusations traded at state hearings on a plan by Blue Cross and Blue Shield to sharply reduce fees the insurer pays to medical specialists.Both the state's largest insurer and the state's physicians -- now at loggerheads in the hearings -- share responsibility for driving up the cost of health care to Marylanders, through a mutually agreeable arrangement over the years. The process of cost inflation has been delayed by this Blue Cross fee formula, but prices have soared far beyond the average cost of living rises.

WASHINGTON -- Believing that they can cure what ails America, an extraordinary number of doctors are pinning campaign buttons on their white jackets and running for Congress in states from Maryland to California.Forty physicians and seven dentists launched races for the House or Senate this year, the most in recent memory, campaign analysts say.Although a few have dropped out already, the next Congress could have more doctors than Capitol Hill has seen in decades. There have been no more than seven in any Congress in the past 40 years, according to Congressional Quarterly; only four hold office today.

Allow me to reduce your 110 column inches on Mark Midei to the crucial one: "Reviewers saw 30 percent narrowings when Dr. Midei saw 90 percent. " ("Mark Midei fights for medical license, exoneration," Dec. 10.) The rest is rhetoric. A key role of primary care physicians is to prevent unnecessary procedures by specialists. This is impossible if the patient is sucked through an ER evaluation and stenting procedure like a goose through a jet engine, without ever calling the patient's physician.

The state Board of Physicians Tuesday suspended the license of a Salisbury pain doctor, who the board said had not been using proper safeguards in prescribing opiates. Separately, state health officials had suspended Dr. Brent R. Fox's authority to write prescriptions for opiates and other controlled dangerous substances last week after their own investigation showed he was prescribing drugs in amounts outside of standards and was not conducting thorough exams of patients. The new action means the doctor can't practice medicine in Maryland for now. The doctor had been referred to the state by a managed-care organization with which Fox was affiliated, and the state has become more aggressive in tackling abuse of highly addictive painkillers.