ABMS Board Certification: Improving Continuous Specialty Certification

For almost 100 years, the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) and its 24 Member Boards have been entrusted with the responsibility of overseeing the process by which physicians become Board Certified and continue their certification across their careers. Continuing certification provides a framework that helps physicians keep up to date with the myriad of medical advances, to continually improve, and to objectively demonstrate their commitment to maintaining knowledge and skills to the patients, families, and communities who depend upon them. A robust and rigorous certification system is important to the profession, to individual physicians, and to patients and other members of the public who rely upon this credential for the quality it represents

ABMS Board Certification: Improving Continuous Specialty Certification

For almost 100 years, the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) and its 24 Member Boards have been entrusted with the responsibility of overseeing the process by which physicians become Board Certified and continue their certification across their careers. Continuing certification provides a framework that helps physicians keep up to date with the myriad of medical advances, to continually improve, and to objectively demonstrate their commitment to maintaining knowledge and skills to the patients, families, and communities who depend upon them. A robust and rigorous certification system is important to the profession, to individual physicians, and to patients and other members of the public who rely upon this credential for the quality it represents

Experiences of belittlement and harassment and their correlates among medical students in the United States: longitudinal survey

Objective To determine medical students' perceptions of having been harassed or belittled and their correlates, for the purposes of reducing such abuses. Design Longitudinal survey. Setting 16 nationally representative US medical schools. Participants 2884 students from class of 2003. Main outcome measures Experiences of harassment and belittlement at freshman orientation, at entry to wards, and in senior year by other students, by residents or fellows, by preclinical professors, by clinical professors or attendings, or by patients. Results 2316 students provided data (response rate 80.3%). Among seniors, 42% (581/1387) reported having experienced harassment and 84% (1166/1393) belittlement during medical school. These types of abuse were caused by other students (11% (158/1389) and 32% (443/1390) of students experienced such harassment or belittlement, respectively). Harassment and belittlement was also caused by residents (27% (374/1387) and 71% (993/1393)), preclinical professors (9% (131/1386) and 29% (398/1385)), clinical professors (21% (285/1386) and 63% (878/1390)), and patients (25% (352/1387) and 43% (592/1388)). Only 13% (181/1385) of students classified any of these experiences as severe. Medical students who reported having been harassed or belittled did not differ significantly from those not reporting such experiences by sex, ethnicity, political orientation, or religion. They did differ significantly by chosen specialty and were significantly more likely to be stressed, depressed, and suicidal, to drink alcohol or to binge drink, and to state that their faculty did not care about medical students. They were also significantly less likely to be glad they trained to become a doctor. Conclusion Most medical students in the United States report having been harassed or belittled during their training. Although few students characterised the harassment or belittlement as severe, poor mental health and low career satisfaction were significantly correlated with these experiences

Abundance and species diversity hotspots of tracked marine predators across the North American Arctic

International audienceAim: Climate change is altering marine ecosystems worldwide and is most pronounced in the Arctic. Economic development is increasing leading to more disturbances and pressures on Arctic wildlife. Identifying areas that support higher levels of predator abundance and biodiversity is important for the implementation of targeted conservation measures across the Arctic.Location: Primarily Canadian Arctic marine waters but also parts of the United States, Greenland and Russia.Methods: We compiled the largest data setof existing telemetry data for marine predators in the North American Arctic consisting of 1,283 individuals from 21 species. Data were arranged into four species groups: (a) cetaceans and pinnipeds, (b) polar bears Ursus maritimus (c) seabirds, and (d) fishes to address the following objectives: (a) to identify abundance hotspots for each species group in the summer–autumn and winter–spring; (b) to identify species diversity hotspots across all species groups and extent of overlap with exclusive economic zones; and (c) to perform a gap analysis that assesses amount of overlap between species diversity hotspots with existing protected areas.Results: Abundance and species diversity hotpots during summer–autumn and winter–spring were identified in Baffin Bay, Davis Strait, Hudson Bay, Hudson Strait, Amundsen Gulf, and the Beaufort, Chukchi and Bering seas both within and across species groups. Abundance and species diversity hotpots occurred within the conti -nental slope in summer–autumn and offshore in areas of moving pack ice in winter–spring. Gap analysis revealed that the current level of conservation protection that overlaps species diversity hotspots is low covering only 5% (77,498 km2) in summer–autumn and 7% (83,202 km2) in winter–spring.Main conclusions: We identified several areas of potential importance for Arctic marine predators that could provide policymakers with a starting point for conservation measures given the multitude of threats facing the Arctic. These results are relevant to multilevel and multinational governance to protect this vulnerable ecosystem in our rapidly changing world