Improving Resident Understanding of Healthcare Business and Policy through the Development of a High-yield and Dynamic Educational Series

Objective: Residents have a strong desire to be engaged in and learn about the financial and societal impact of health care delivery and reform initiatives1,2. In order to address this need, a Business and Health Policy Educational Series was developed, with positive feedback from participating residents. Background: During the Program Evaluation Committee (PEC) meeting, as part of the annual review of the ACGME education curriculum for the Virginia Commonwealth University Neurology Residency Program, a deficiency was identified with regard to resident self-perception of understanding of the business and policy of healthcare and reform initiatives. This deficiency is one shared at many programs across most specialties1. A recommendation was put forth that this was an opportunity for improvement, and the design and rollout of an educational series on business and health policy was undertaken, with positive results. Design/Methods: A high-yield and interactive educational series consisting of 20-30 minute sessions was developed to address certain topics within the business and healthcare policy spectrum. Topics covered included: how does healthcare work?; overview of practice income and expenses; benchmarks; what is an RVU?; impact of rising medication costs; compensation plans and salary realities. Results: Results of the End of the Year Educational Survey by residents showed an overwhelmingly positive response to the curriculum initiative. The PEC recommended continuing the program, with minor modifications for the following year. Topics suggested to be included were: how do residents get paid?; the opiate epidemic; understanding the Affordable Care Act; and developing a hands-on billing and coding workshop. A set of relevant journal articles to provide resources will be included. Conclusions: Having an understanding of the business and policy of healthcare and reform initiatives is important to residents, and effective results are obtainable through the development of a high yield, interactive educational curriculum initiative

Places in diplomacy

In the world of diplomacy, what does Vienna or Paris evoke, for instance? For the historian, there is the inevitability of associating these imperial capitals of the Old World with major diplomatic events such as the Congress of Vienna of 1815 and the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. International conferences have a peculiar habit of acquiring nicknames taken after the cities in which they take place. Historians talk in the shorthand of ‘at Versailles’, ‘at The Hague’, ‘at London’ and so forth, implicitly drawing boundaries of shared knowledge and expectations. In the nineteenth and early twentieth century, these places were overwhelmingly located in Europe, which was largely a reflection of the configuration of political power in the world. But, also, it exposes limitations in how we have come to conceptualise diplomacy as predominantly a Western-centric process. Notable exceptions were diplomatic events that marked the decline of the once mighty empires, such as the Treaty of Nanking of 1842 ending the first Opium War, one of the ignominious of the nineteenth-century treaties

Surface structure of thin asymmetric PS-b-PMMA diblock copolymers investigated by atomic force microscopy

Asymmetric poly(styrene-b-methyl methacrylate) (PS-b-PMMA) diblock copolymers of molecular weight M-n = 29,700g mol(-1) (M-PS = 9300 g mol(-1) M-PMMA = 20,100 g mol(-1), PD = 1.15, chi(PS) = 0.323, chi(PMMA) = 0.677) and M-n = 63,900 g mol(-1) (M-PS = 50,500 g mol(-1), M-PMMA = 13,400 g mol(-1), PD = 1.18, chi(PS) = 0.790, chi(PMMA) = 0.210) were prepared via reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used to investigate the surface structure of thin films, prepared by spin-coating the diblock copolymers on a silicon substrate. We show that the nanostructure of the diblock copolymer depends on the molecular weight and volume fraction of the diblock copolymers. We observed a perpendicular lamellar structure for the high molar mass sample and a hexagonal-packed cylindrical patterning for the lower molar mass one. Small-angle X-ray scattering investigation of these samples without annealing did not reveal any ordered structure. Annealing of PS-b-PMMA samples at 160 degrees C for 24 h led to a change in surface structure

Sudarpo Sastrosatomo (June 30, 1920–October 22, 2007)

Page range: 145-146An obituary of Sudarpo Sastrosatomo, an important member of the group of young people who gathered round Sutan Sjahrir during the Japanese Occupation of Indonesia and who, during the struggle for independence and after, made an important contribution to the political life of the early Republic

Research and the Policy Development Process: "Measuring the Costs of Injury"

This paper discusses the development of a methodology for measuring the costs of injury in New Zealand. This is work in progress, involving a number of researchers and government agencies with a goal of developing useful cost estimations of the impact of injury for policy development