Articles related to MEDICAL LIFE

Inaccurate forecasts resulted in the opening of very few new medical schools between the late 1970s and early 2000s. Now, although med school class sizes have increased by about 30% over the last two decades, that increase isn’t enough to address the number of positions needed to accommodate the number of applicants or the number of physicians needed in the US.

The first increase in federally financed graduate medical education (GME) in 25 years was approved by Congress in December of 2020. The law was included in the 2021 Consolidated Appropriations Act for the year’s end. The law sets financing for 200 new GME positions each year for a total of 1,000 more GME roles to be developed over a five-year period. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced the first 200 GME roles in January 2023. A total of 100 teaching hospitals from 30 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico will receive the slots. The roles are in place as of July 1, 2023.

In addition to recommending indexes over individual stocks and bonds, other recommendations include a 60/40 split between US and EU, Asia, and emerging markets and a solid “plan B” for physician in retirement, to avoid liquidating investments in a deep downturn.

No medical professional is required to enjoy a good tickle to the funny bone. Although a pharmacist may tell you that laughing is not the best medicine, these old-fashioned jokes about doctors will undoubtedly make both patients and professionals laugh (or, yes, groan).

There is excellent news in the upcoming Medscape Female Physician Compensation Report for 2022. Female primary care and specialist physicians had pay increases of 8.1% and 8.5% from the prior year, respectively. This has resulted in a 2% reduction in the pay difference between men and women in both situations. Despite the fact that this is progress, there is still a huge 25% disparity in primary care and 31% in specialties, with female doctors underrepresented in the higher paying specialties.

In the first half of 2020, only 36% of the three million submissions to top health and medical journals came from women. The gender difference was most prominent among younger cohorts of female authors who were just starting their careers and applied to both research and non-research papers across all authorship positions in both top-tier and lower-impact journals. The damage to women’s research productivity, particularly for those in their early careers, was immediate amid the enormous, quick publication of covid papers. According to research, women’s publication production fell by 15% in 2020 compared to 2019, and by comparison to men, it was 24% lower. A growing gender disparity was substantiated by an analysis of nearly 500,000 authors in the fields of basic medicine, biology, chemistry, and clinical medicine, demonstrating that the early disadvantage women faced in terms of recognition and career advancement was both real and lasting.