The PMD Critical List: A Flood of Job Offers

A new survey finds nearly two-thirds of final-year medical residents received 50 or more job offers, and nearly half received 100 or more offers. That story, plus a look at shortcomings at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the medical origins of the Mediterranean diet, are among this week’s must-read news stories for physicians.

• Survey: Resident Physicians Flooded with Job Offers (Merritt Hawkins)

A respected physician recruitment outfit conducted a survey of newly minted docs and came up an interesting inconsistency. While the average medical resident gets about 50 job offers, 25% said they would select another profession if given a chance.

• Disease Uncontrolled: Swift Decline of the CDC (New York Post)

Once the nation’s most respected federal agency, observers say the venerable Atlanta-based institution is now failing citizens on its 2 foundation missions—public safety and disease preparedness. Is it now the Centers for Disease Mix-ups and Confusion?

• The Ancient Diet Doctors (Daily Mail)

Greek researchers have discovered that it was physicians who “laid the principals of modern Mediterranean cooking.” A review of texts written by ancient Hippocratic doctors and philosophers found a belief that “rich flavors could improve the nutritional potency of food.”

• How Doctors Learn to Give Bad News (Gizmodo)

An interesting essay on delivering bad medical news. Patients and families require doctors “to find a balance between honesty, truth, and hope; to be human, yet not too human; to know everything, even the unknowable.” Talk about stress!

• 11 Healthcare Buzzwords for 2015 (HealthLeadersMedia)

Medicine is famous for is varied lingo. And it’s always mounting. Consider some of these for the New Year: “Phone Hygiene,” “Decision Fatigue,” “ICU Bounceback,” “Froth/Frothy,” “Physician Numeracy.”

• Challenges Physicians Can Expect in 2015 (JDSUPRA Business Advisor)

What do doctors face in their business this year? “Burdensome developments,” that’s what. Among them: the ongoing impact of Obamacare, alternative and declining reimbursement, increased government push for regulatory compliance, and more technological changes.

• Build a Better Doctor … In the Trenches (Weill Cornell Medical College)

Ivy League med school researchers have found that future physicians can greatly benefit from having an early education in a professional setting. By “shadowing” established doctors, students can “explore and develop their own professional identity.”

• The Doctor Who Championed Hand-Washing and Briefly Saved Lives (NPR)

A bit of medical history from 1846—a Hungarian doctor after much personal research found that once medical staff started washing up, deaths dropped dramatically. For this fundamental but vital discovery, doctor colleagues took offense at him and the he was fired.

• Why We're Picking Walmart and CVS Over Doctors' Offices (The Huffington Post)

A report on the massive growth of retail medical clinics. With nearly 2,000 nationwide (up more than sevenfold since 2007), “a new age of consumerism” has hit the healthcare market. Retail health centers can’t replace doctors, but they do offer a choice for those won’t don’t have one.

• Doctors’ Muddled Statistical Knowledge May Harm Patients (New England Center for Investigative Reporting)

A recent investigation found that too many physicians are “statistically illiterate.” Doctors must be less “intuitive about the tests that they commonly order” and become “more attuned to the complicated statistics behind a test’s reliability.”