The PMD Critical List: Top 5 Concerns for 2015

This week's list of must-read news stories includes a look at top concerns for doctors heading into the new year, a pair of stories about physicians fighting Ebola, and the true cost of all those missing waiting room magazines.

• Top 5 Concerns for Physicians in 2015 (Physicians Foundation)

Leading the Physicians Watch List for next year are these issues: the pace of medical practice consolidation, the administrative burdens on patient-physician relationships, the impact of ICD-10 preparations, cost transparency in medical billing, and physician shortages.

• 2014 Person of the Year: The Ebola Fighters (Time)

Time’s annual POY issue, once a meaningful item, has become something of a disappointment recently. This year, however, they got it right. The physicians involved in treating this deadly virus are the rock foundation of the medical profession.

• I'm a Doctor...I was 'Tortured' (American Thinker)

Cutting commentary by a Colorado surgeon on the recent “torture” report issued by US Senate Democrats. “Most physicians should be on disability for PTSD due to the ‘torture’ they endured during their training.”

• Cuba's Biggest Export: Doctors (Newsweek)

Agree with the decision to normalize US relations with Cuba or not, it’s a fact that the small Communist nation trains more “medical professionals per capita than any other developing or developed country.”

• Physicians Trained in High-Cost Regions Spend More (HealthLeadersMedia)

A Q&A with the senior author of a report that found “that physicians whose residencies were in higher-spending regions spent 29% more on average than their peers who had trained in lower-spending areas of the country.”

• Doctors’ Offices Lose Millions to Magazine Theft (Time)

Why are all the magazines in your waiting room old? A BMJ study found it’s because patients steal the newer ones. “Gossipy” magazines are the top theft target. An average of 1.3 publications disappear daily from medical offices.

• Medical Specialties with the Most Female Residents (Becker’s Hospital Review)

For a while it seemed like women might comprise the majority of US physicians. Not now. They peaked at 51% of medical school applicants in 2003-04. OB/GYN (83% of residents) is the top specialty for women and anesthesiology (37%) is at the bottom.

• A Prescription for Better Teaching, Stronger Doctors (90.9 wbur Boston)

A thoughtful essay by a Harvard-trained medical professor, who advocates the “see one, do one, teach one” method of medical education—and important but vanishing art.

• Kid’s Book by Doctor Surpasses Expectations (Houston Chronicle)

After spending a year treating 3,000 African children a month with HIV/AIDS, a young physician funded ($65,000) and authored a fun, upbeat picture book on the importance of HIV medication and gave a copy to each kid (40,000+). Talk about a healer!