Pharmacists’ refusal to fill legally written prescriptions has recently become a topic of debate among healthcare providers, employers, lawmakers, and the general public.

The issue is often framed as a question of patient rights vs. pharmacist rights, due to the public controversy over the emergency contraceptive “Plan B” which has unfolded over the past decade. However, the issue carries broader implications, extending to drugs intended for abortion or immediate post-abortion care, lethal injection for use in the potentially abused medications such as narcotics.

The stakes are so high for interested parties that states across the country have been pressured to take a position for or against pharmacists’ refusal to fill through legislation and policy changes. As of November 2006, five states (AR, CA, GA, MS, SD) have chosen to codify the right of a pharmacist to refuse to fill a prescription on moral grounds, while four (IL, MA, NC, PA) have passed legislation requiring pharmacists to fill or transfer certain prescriptions.¹ Read the full story

The longstanding joke is that doctors have horrible handwriting. But it’s no laughing matter.

While handwriting doesn’t play a major role in most peoples’ careers, in the medical field, it can mean the difference between life and death. Whether it’s a mix-up between Lamisil and Lamictal, Cerebyx and Celebrex, Zyrtec and Zantac, or Sarafem and Serophene, confusion over drugs with similar spellings and similar sounds accounted for 15 percent of all errors reported to the United States Pharmacopeia Medication Errors Reporting Program from 1996 to 2001. In fact, it’s such a problem that the Food and Drug Administration even appointed a panel of experts to review proprietary drug names—just to try to alleviate such confusion in the future.

But beyond drug name mix-ups, poor penmanship also accounts for many other errors. Read the full story

Recently The Student Doctor Network got the chance to speak with Joseph Disa, MD, FACS, who specializes in reconstruction of areas of the body after surgery to remove a tumor, particularly breast reconstruction and reconstruction of the head and neck.

Joe works at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, and he is also involved in teaching medical students, residents, fellows and attending physicians. Thanks for the interview, Joe!

SDN: Describe a typical day at work.

D: There isn’t really a typical day when you’re working at a major cancer center in New York City. But, on most days I get to work, do some paperwork, do inpatient rounds and then I’m either off to the operating room to conduct reconstructive microsurgery, or I have clinic hours to see new patients and follow ups.
Read the full story

Rochester, MI

Officials from Oakland University and Beaumont Hospitals announced last week they will create a privately funded medical school on Oakland’s campus.

Beaumont and Oakland jointly filed a letter of intent with the Liaison Committee for Medical Education (LCME) to begin the process of establishing an allopathic medical school.

“Studies show that there is a looming shortage of physicians, nationally and especially in Michigan,” said Ananias Diokno, M.D., Beaumont’s Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer. “This new medical school will help fill the gap.” Read the full story

By Jeremiah Fleenor, MD, MBA, author of The Medical School Interview: Secrets and a System for Success

To make a goal of comfort or happiness has never appealed to me; a system of ethics built on this basis would be sufficient only for a herd of cattle.

-Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955)

I was recently asked by an applicant how to approach ethical questions asked during an interview. His concerns about answering this type of question echoed those of many other applicants. In light of this common woe, I’d like to share a simple three-step approach for handling interview questions regarding ethics. You’ll be happy to know reasonable answers are probably easier to frame than you think. Further, interviewers are often as nervous about asking ethical questions as you are about answering them!

Abortion, euthanasia, stem cell research, and pharmaceutical “perks” are super-charged topics currently facing physicians and our health care system. It is a truly scary proposition to be asked about your stance on such issues, especially in the glare of an interview. When your goal is to make a good impression (and not rock the boat), it can be hard to share your views on these sensitive topics. What’s an applicant to do? Read the full story

Note: If you are looking for Interview Feedback, click here for the new location.

Historically, applying to health-professional schools was a paperwork nightmare.

As a student employee in the Georgetown University Career Center, Steve Goldenberg felt there had to be an easier way to manage the paperwork of applications, so he created Interfolio in 1999.

Interfolio users can create an electronic portfolio to manage important documents online, including confidential and non-confidential letters of recommendation, resumes or CVs, writing samples, dissertation abstracts, teaching certifications, student evaluations and more. Read the full story