Payment Reform: From Distant Dream to Hard Reality

Payers and providers are fast adopting new ways of paying for care and shedding fee-for-service constraints to doing what they’ve long known to be in the best interest of patients. It's not easy, but it's a trend that's here to stay.... Read More

Teaching the Teachers: The Group on Faculty Affairs

What if you asked faculty to embrace dramatic change but didn't offer any training? As care providers, we take care of patients but didn't have a good system in place to take care of ourselves. Thomas Viggiano is with the Board of Directors at the AAMC and discusses the formation of the Group on Faculty Affairs and how they're making a difference. ... Read More

Darrell Kirch: Why Medicine Needs to Embrace Change

Our success hinges on our ability to embrace change, says Darrell Kirch, M.D., president and CEO of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). What will move us into the future, Kirch believes, is not more resources but rather a willingness to create a unified vision and a readiness to move forward into new models. ... Read More

Scholarship is hard: Marshall University figured out a way to make it easier

Love to share your work but struggling to find the time? Darshana Shah is the associate dean of faculty affairs and professional development at Marshall University. She describes a unique online journal at her school that's serving as a building block to higher level journals. Think of it as the minor league vs. the major league!... Read More

Student Voices: What happens when change moves too fast?

Laura Palmer is a third year medical student at Texas Tech University. While she's all for change, she cautions about what can happen when the pace of that change may be too fast for students. ... Read More

What do teachers and Shark Tank have in common? Johns Hopkins University has the answer

At Johns Hopkins, there is a focus on faculty. Joseph Cofrancesco Jr., Associate Professor of Medicine and director at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Excellence in Education, describes a unique program aimed at faculty development and education that includes teaching camp and a Shark Tank presentation. The results have been remarkable.... Read More

How can we help teachers teach?

Michael Barone is a pediatrician with Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and an associate dean of faculty development and he says support for teachers was lacking at his institution. So what did his school do about it? They created an ambitious program to help teachers teach. ... Read More

We've Lost that Loving Feeling: How technology has distracted us from compassion and empathy

Richard Levin says technology has transformed medicine, but the focus on technology and the value equation has caused us to lose the human touch. Can we use technology and still focus on empathy and compassion?... Read More

Stop Talking, Start Listening

Doctors give advice, but sometimes the smartest way to improve the health of a community isn't prescriptive, it's more about listening. Aaron Byzak with University of California San Diego Health says his system decided to stop talking and start listening. What they learned changed the way they do business. ... Read More

Student Voices: What is it about the third year of medical school that creates so much stress?

They're expected to spend their lives taking care of patients but who's making sure they're ok? Brianna Lide is a third year medical student at Texas A&M who says med students are optimistic the first two years of school, but around the time year three hits, a few things happen that have a profound impact on shaping future attitudes. What is it about that third year and what can be done about it? Find out more. ... Read More

Student Voices: Recruitment vs. Retention–How is your institution doing?

Is it enough to simply recruit a diverse student body? Aisha Omorodion is a third year medical student at Albany Medical College who says too many schools are just trying to reach quotas, and not giving thought to the more complex issues of academic support and student loan debt. Learn more about her thoughts on how schools can crack the code to making a real difference when it comes to maintaining diversity.... Read More

Is Precision Medicine the Future of Research in America?

Guess what was the most popular message in President Obama's State of the Union address? If you guessed, "announcement of his precision medicine initiative," you might be crazy. And you'd be right.... Read More

How to Bring Research to Life: Show People Why it Matters

How can you secure research grant funding, attract institutional philanthropic gifts and engage—even inspire—the audience at your next presentation?... Read More

Pulitzer-winning columnist Eugene Robinson on social justice and why 'all lives matter'

Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson recalls the Orangeburg massacre, his childhood and the end of “Jim Crow” era of government-sanctioned oppression to illustrate how far the country has come in terms of racial equity, and how far it has to go. “Black lives mattered then,” he says, “and black lives matter now. All lives matter.”... Read More

Boost Research Funding and Build a Healthier, More Diverse Physician-Scientist Pipeline

The challenge: recruiting new physician scientists to your institution while keeping existing talent engaged and improving diversity. ... Read More

Women in Medicine: Cultivating a Healthy Disrespect for the Impossible

University of Utah pediatrician and Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs Carrie Byington, M.D. reflects on her career path and the obstacles she overcame as a Mexican-American woman growing up in south Texas with no physician role models. “It’s not about success. There are successes and those are great. There are failures and those are hard,” she confides. “It’s about how you spend your time. In the amount of time you have here, how are you going spend it, how are you going to make a difference?”... Read More

The Gender Gap in Medicine: Why it Persists and How to Fix it

Women make most family health decisions and largely dictate how the country's health dollars are spent. But they have decidedly less influence in how major health organizations are run. Why, and what can be done to remedy the imbalance?... Read More

Could Research-Authoring Undergrads be a Solution to the Physician-Scientist Shortage?

“Undergraduates rarely are exposed to clinical research, and that’s threatening our pipeline for clinical investigators,” says pediatrician Carrie Byington, M.D., co-principal investigator of the Utah Center for Clinical and Translational Science and associate vice president for Faculty and Academic Affairs at the University of Utah. “We thought the Academic Associates program would be a way for them to learn career skills and be exposed to research at an early stage. Many students are now telling us that this program opened their eyes to a world they didn’t know existed.” ... Read More

Medical practices and success in the new era of Medicare payment: What I learned from three early adopters

Why some small Utah providers took the risk of participating in Medicare pilot payment models: Because it is the wave of the future and they are committed to success. ... Read More

The Healing Power of Storytelling

Doctors and researchers frown on the false logic of anecdotes—the "N of 1" stories that spread like a virus to undermine science and sound reasoning. But is there a place for storytelling in medicine?... Read More