Gov. Brown signs CMA-sponsored responsible beverage service training bill On Sunday, October 15, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill sponsored by the California Medical Association (CMA) and introduced by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, requiring individuals who sell or serve alcoholic beverages to undergo responsible beverage service training. “The purpose of this law is simple: to help educate bartenders about how to serve alcohol responsibly and how to recognize when a customer’s had enough to drink,” Assemblywoman Gonzalez Fletcher said. “This law will mean fewer drunk drivers on the road, which will reduce the risk of future tragedies. It will also help reduce all the other problems caused by someone drinking too much at a bar.” The bill (AB 1221) is the result of a tragic drunk-driving accident that killed two UC San Diego medical students in 2015. In the wake of the accident, classmates of the victims worked with Assemblywoman Fletcher and CMA to develop legislation that would better equip servers and bartenders to identify signs of overconsumption and intervene before tragedy strikes. California is now the 19th state, along with the District of Columbia, to require that bartenders and servers receive mandatory training on alcohol responsibility. Oregon mandated responsible beverage service training three years ago and estimated a 23 percent decrease in fatal single-vehicle nighttime crashes. “Responsible beverage service training can't bring back our brilliant, compassionate classmates, but it can prevent other communities from having to mourn the senseless loss of loved ones to drunk drivers,” said Daniel Spinosa, one of the victims’ classmates at the UCSD School of Medicine. “This bill will empower bartenders and servers to save lives. We wish it had been law years ago." November 14, 2017 CMA, General Medical Students, State Legislation, State Legislative Advocacy 0 0 Comment Read More »
FSMB releases free online education modules for medical students and residents The Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) has released a free online education module for medical students and residents who are interested in learning about the medical licensing process. The new module, "Understanding and Navigating the Medical Licensing Process," is designed to help medical students and residents familiarize themselves with the licensing process before they apply with their state medical board. This is the second module in a series of online educational offerings developed by the FSMB Workgroup on Education for Medical Regulation. The workgroup is currently working on future modules focused on the medical disciplinary process and dealing with physician health and impairment. Click here to access this module. October 19, 2017 General Licensure, Medical Board of California, Medical Students, Residents and Fellows 0 0 Comment Read More »
CMA urges Gov. Brown to sign responsible beverage service bill Educating beverage servers in bars and restaurants is a key part of reducing drunk-driving fatalities. The California Legislature has passed a bill sponsored by the California Medical Association (CMA) that would require California bartenders, servers and managers to receive responsible beverage service training based on a curriculum developed by the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. The bill—AB 1221 (Gonzalez Fletcher)—now heads to Governor Brown for his signature. Contact the governor’s office today and urge him to sign this important bill! The bill is the result of a tragic drunk-driving accident that killed two UC San Diego medical students in 2015. In the wake of the accident, classmates of the victims worked with Assemblywoman Gonzalez Fletcher and CMA to develop legislation that would better equip servers and bartenders to identify signs of overconsumption and intervene before tragedy strikes. “Responsible beverage service training can't bring back our brilliant, compassionate classmates, but it can prevent other communities from having to mourn the senseless loss of loved ones to drunk drivers,” said Daniel Spinosa, one of the victims’ classmates at the UC San Diego School of Medicine. “This bill will empower bartenders and servers to save lives. We wish it had been law years ago.” Responsible beverage service training provides bartenders and servers with tools to effectively identify when a patron has had too much to drink, and how to safely intervene if necessary. Eighteen other states and the District of Columbia already require such training. Three years after Oregon mandated responsible beverage service training, fatal single-vehicle nighttime crashes decreased by an estimated 23 percent. AB 1221 is supported by health and public safety organizations including Alcohol Justice, California Academy of Preventive Medicine, California Chapters of the American College of Physicians, California Restaurant Association and Mothers Against Drunk Driving. October 13, 2017 General Medical Students, State Legislative Advocacy, Alcohol, State Legislation 0 0 Comment Read More »
Medical students, residents and fellows invited to submit research abstracts and poster The California Medical Association (CMA) and Network of Ethnic Physician Organizations (NEPO) are hosting a joint annual poster session to showcase research by medical students, residents and fellows across California. All medical students, residents and fellows in the state are invited to submit abstracts for their original research, regardless of membership status. Students who serve marginalized and underserved populations are strongly encouraged to apply. Research categories include basic science, clinical research, clinical vignette, health policy, and social science research. Applicants may only submit one abstract with a 350 word limit, and must explain the relevance of their research to health policy. The deadline is August 14, 2017, at 11:59 p.m. PST. The poster session will take place Friday, October 20, 2017, in conjunction with the CMA House of Delegates and the NEPO Building Healthy Communities Summit, both being held at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim. Poster session participants will receive complimentary registration to attend the NEPO Summit. For more information, see the poster session flyer. To be considered for the poster session, submit your abstract to Kerry Sakimoto, ksakimoto@cmanet.org. Not a Member? CMA membership for students, residents and fellows is subsidized in all counties, and in many areas is FREE. Join today at www.cmanet.org/join or call the CMA Member Resource Center at (800) 786-4262 for more information. July 24, 2017 CMA Residents and Fellows, Building Healthy Communities Summit, House of Delegates, Medical Students, NEPO 0 0 Comment Read More »
California medical students elected to AMA offices Two California Medical Association (CMA) medical students were elected to American Medical Association (AMA) offices at the interim meeting held in November in Florida. Karthik Sarma, an M.D./Ph.D. student at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA was elected to the AMA Board of Trustees as the AMA Medical Student Section (MSS) representative. Helene Nepomuceno, a second-year medical student at the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine, was named chair-elect of the AMA MSS. Sarma has been a member of the California delegation to the AMA for the past five years. He is a leader in the fields of health information technology, medical education and payment reform. Sarma has provided compelling testimony on numerous occasions before the CMA House of Delegates and has been an excellent representative for the medical students. He has also been very active in medical student leadership at the AMA, starting with his service on the AMA-MSS Committee on Legislation and Advocacy. Talking about his role and the recent presidential election, Sarma says it is a good time for medical students to get involved in organized medicine. “I think it is essential for students to get involved with organized medicine because the decisions that are being made at the state and federal levels right now will have an enormous impact on the health care system that we will soon be practicing in as physicians," he said. "By making our voices heard, we can help bring about the type of changes that will result in a better system for our patients and our profession." Sarma has been the driving force in the AMA-MSS for broader consideration of health information technology issues. He led a successful campaign for the establishment of an AMA-MSS Health Information Technology Task Force and served as that group’s inaugural chair from 2014 to 2015. Since then, the task force has been formally adopted by the AMA-MSS as the Committee on Health Information Technology. This past year, Sarma was appointed as the medical student member of the AMA Council on Medical Service, where he has used his experience to help write reports on diverse issues including pharmaceutical pricing, inmate health care and mobile medical apps. Sarma's term on the AMA Board of Trustees will begin next June. Nepomuceno has been an invaluable asset to CMA, lending her policy analysis and communication skills to the CMA House of Delegates and as a member of CMA's Committee on Membership, Finance and Governance. She has served as an alternate delegate to AMA for the past year. Her distinctive personal attributes include sensitivity to the needs of her peers and an ability to serve as a bridge between leaders and the greater community. She has demonstrated a dedication to fairness, inclusion and teamwork that sets her apart as the kind of leader who lifts others up. Through devoted and persistent outreach and engagement of her fellow students, Nepomuceno and her peers have built the UC Irvine medical student chapter of CMA into one of the strongest and most active chapters in the state. Nepomuceno said she is coming to her new role in organized medicine focused on how medical students can advocate for their patients and the profession of medicine on the political stage. “Organized medicine has allowed me to participate in something much larger than myself or my immediate community. I believe emphatically that advocacy is an important component of any plan to change the world, and that the physician is the ultimate patient advocate," said Nepomuceno. "Physicians have the privilege of caring for people at their most vulnerable, and it is imperative that physicians continue to protect our patients’ interests by shaping our evolving health care system. There has perhaps never been a more important moment for advocacy, political action and engagement. When it sometimes feels like one voice is too small, together, our collective voices are powerful.” December 13, 2016 General American Medical Association, Medical Students, Physician Leadership 0 0 Comment Read More »
First annual HOD poster presentations a huge success The California Medical Association (CMA) hosted its first ever House of Delegates (HOD) poster session to showcase research by medical students, residents and fellows around the state. The winners were Alexandra Iacob, M.D., a pediatrics resident at Loma Linda University Medical Center, and Sahil Aggarwall, a second-year medical student from the University of California, Irvine. Dr. Iacob's research looked at the after-effects of non-fatal drowning to see if medical care could be improved and if policies could be developed to reduce the devastating effects "not only for the patient but for the entire family.” Her poster, which she was inspired to create after she and her team saw too many non-fatal drowning incidents in their pediatrics practice at Loma Linda, looked at data from 265 submersion incident reports in San Bernardino County between 2007 and 2014. Among the conclusions were that males are at increased risk and that the majority of injuries occurred when fencing was present. Dr. Iacob hopes to take this data and write a bill to be submitted to the state legislature requiring state data collection. She and her team are also entertaining other advocacy efforts to “improve health outcomes of our children…[but the] ultimate goal is to develop measures to prevent these terrible injuries.” Aggarwal presented research that looked at medical students’ attitudes toward reporting risky behaviors committed by doctors, nurses and classmates. “After doing some searching through research databases, I found that there is not a single study that characterizes medical students' attitudes toward reporting different provider types for the same behavior or error.” He surveyed 159 medical students at UC Irvine and found that medical students are more likely to approach and discuss a medical error or unethical behavior with a classmate or nurse rather than a doctor. “I think that reporting medical errors or unethical behaviors is vital to both the health and safety of patients," said Aggarwal, who believes that medical schools should implement patient safety curricula that alleviates student fears about reporting superiors, and that hospitals should be encouraged to create anonymous error-reporting systems to improve reporting rates. "I plan on continuing to encourage medical students to report these behaviors by working to incorporate a section in the UC Irvine first-year curriculum about medical error/unethical behavior reporting and its importance," he said. Both winning posters, as well as presentations from 20 other medical students and residents, were on display immediately outside the ballroom where the delegates met during the CMA annual meeting. The research was well received by all, and we hope that this will become a permanent fixture at future meetings and encourage more future physicians to take an active role within the association. “As a pediatric resident I have been involved with CMA since I moved to California," said Dr. Iacob. "I have seen CMA's advocacy efforts for patients through various meetings throughout the year. I thought this contest would be a wonderful platform to discuss the data we have been able to gather in our county and develop future plans.” A big thank you to the Academic Practice Forum for judging the contest and to the Medical Student Section and Resident and Fellow Section for reviewing the abstracts. To view the winning poster session abstracts, click here. November 4, 2016 Awards, CMA residents and Fellows, House of Delegates, Medical Students 0 0 Comment Read More »
Medical students: Apply now for 2017 loan repayment program Applications are now being accepted for the National Health Service Corps Students to Service Loan Repayment Program, which offers up to $120,000 to medical students (M.D. and D.O.) in their final year of medical school in return for a commitment to provide primary health care full-time for at least three years or half time for at least six years in a medically underserved area. The application deadline is October 13, 2016. For more information and to apply for the program, click here. August 25, 2016 General Medical School Financing, Medical Students, Medical School Debt, Medical School Loans 0 0 Comment Read More »
Call for abstracts: Medical students, residents and fellows invited to submit abstracts for first annual HOD poster presentation The California Medical Association (CMA) is hosting its first ever House of Delegates (HOD) poster session to showcase research by medical students, residents and fellows around the state on Saturday, October 15, 2016, during CMA’s annual meeting in Sacramento. Winners will be announced during the HOD General Assembly on Sunday, October 16. All medical students, residents or fellows who are members of CMA are invited to submit abstracts for their original research. Original research categories for the poster session include: Basic science, clinical research, health policy research and clinical vignette. The abstract deadline is September 3, 2016, at 11:59 p.m. PT (six weeks before the meeting). Not a member? Membership for students, residents and fellows is subsidized in all counties, and in many areas is free. Join today at www.cmanet.org/join or call CMA’s Member Service Center at (800) 786-4262 for more information. For more information on the poster session criteria, click here. Contact: Samantha Pellon, (916) 551-2887 or spellon@cmanet.org. August 16, 2016 CMA Medical Students, Research and Experimental Medicine, Residents and Fellows, House of Delegates 0 0 Comment Read More »
CMA Foundation awards 5 new medical student community leadership grants The California Medical Association (CMA) Foundation has awarded five new medical student grants as part of its Medical Student Community Leadership Grant Program. The program provides grant funding to California medical students to support health-related educational, advocacy, community service and other outreach programs that enhance the well-being of California communities. Grant applications are reviewed on a semi-annual basis; the next application deadline is October 31, 2016. Newly funded projects include: Time Is Heart: Medical students at California Northstate University College of Medicine will perform educational outreach to medically underserved individuals in Sacramento who are at risk for acute myocardial infarction (AMI). As a part of their outreach, students will distribute information on AMI and keychains containing one dose of aspirin at health fairs and community events in Sacramento. 2nd Annual R-Health Healthcare Technology Conference: Established by students at the University of California, Riverside School of Medicine, this conference will discuss the impact of “big data” on health care in the Inland Empire. Experts in the field will lead panel discussions about technology in health care from the clinical and policy perspectives. VN CARES HBV Screening: Medical students at the University of California, Davis School of Medicine will provide free, culturally appropriate hepatitis B virus (HBV) screenings and educational outreach to the low-income Vietnamese community in Sacramento. Students will provide screening results, a link to follow-up care and educational information in English and Vietnamese. The Paths to College Conference: The Latino Medical Student Association at UC Irvine will organize a conference for high school students from low-income communities to learn about college. The students and their parents will be transported to the UC Irvine Medical School campus for a day of English and Spanish-language workshops on preparing for college, applying for college and financial aid, and career exploration. MindFull™—A Mobile App for Medical Student Mental Health Management: Medical students at the University of California, Irvine and the University of California, San Francisco have developed and are currently piloting a mobile app for the self-management of depression, anxiety and stress in medical students. The grant funding will be used to develop a Kickstarter marketing video, which the CMA Foundation will help to distribute. The CMA Foundation's Medical Student Community Leadership Grant Program is funded in part through generous donations from physicians like you. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to support future funding of this important program. For more information on the program, visit the CMA Foundation website. Contact: Veronica Mijic, (916) 779-6624 or vmijic@thecmafoundation.org. August 8, 2016 Awards Medical Students, CMA Foundation (CMAF) 0 0 Comment Read More »
UC Riverside School of Medicine receives $2.3 million grant to address region's poor chronic disease metrics The School of Medicine at the University of California, Riverside, has received a five-year, $2.3 million grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration Primary Care Training and Enhancement Program. The grant will allow the medical school to help transform the local health care system by embedding continuous quality improvement in inland Southern California primary care practices. “We will deploy a research curriculum to equip medical students, residents, practicing physicians and pharmacists with the population health skills needed to address inland Southern California’s poor chronic disease metrics and health care disparities,” said the grant’s principal investigator and the associate dean of clinical affairs in the School of Medicine, Michael Nduati, M.D. “We will expand the pipeline of future health care leaders through longitudinal interprofessional training. We also will ground lifelong faculty development into a new, integrated model of health care training towards improving the delivery of care to the inland Southern California community.” Inland Southern California faces severe shortages of primary care physicians and poor health outcomes, particularly from chronic conditions like diabetes and coronary heart disease. “We represent a large geographic region, which makes it more difficult to adequately staff health care providers to care for the population,” Dr. Nduti said. “Access to care is extremely limited for much of our community. But this grant will allow us to train across the spectrum from student to practitioner to hopefully affect a significant impact on the health of inland Southern California.” Click here for more information. July 14, 2016 General Primary Care, UC Riverside, Underserved Communities, Medical Students 0 0 Comment Read More »
