• The Small Business Health Option ex- changes for physicians who are small employers.
• The potential for final action on the Medicare fee schedule.
Follow-up reports on ACA implemen-
tation and the Medicare program will be released by The Physicians Foundation (
www.physiciansfoundation.org) later this year.
New medical schools name inaugural deans
The Dell Medical School at The Universi- ty of Texas at Austin named S. Claiborne “Clay” Johnston, MD, its inaugural dean. He says he’ll lead the school in develop- ing new approaches for teaching, patient care, and research to transform medical education and health care delivery. Francisco Fernandez, MD, professor
and chairman of psychiatry and neuro- sciences at the University of South Flor- ida College of Medicine in Tampa, will serve as the founding dean of the School of Medicine at The University of Texas
Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV). He says he will build the school “into a world-class educational center.” Dr. Johnston served as associate vice chancellor of research at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and is a practicing neurologist specializing in prevention and treatment of stroke. He began March 1 at Dell Medical School, which plans to welcome its first class of students in fall 2016. “There is no greater opportunity for
improving health care than by building a medical school from the ground up at a top institution like UT and in an entre- preneurial city like Austin,” Dr. Johnston said. Dr. Fernandez’s appointment marks
his return to Texas, where he served as a faculty member at MD Anderson Cancer Center and Baylor College of Medicine from 1984 to 1997, with an appoint- ment to the faculty of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, as well. “The chance to build a medical school
from the ground up in a region as richly diverse and wonderful as South Texas is a dream come true,” Dr. Fernandez said.
“To be part of an initiative like this that will have so much impact is a once-in- a-lifetime experience. I’m eager to get started and become part of the Valley community.” Dr. Fernandez will help the school’s
undergraduate medical education and residency programs attain accreditation by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), respectively. UTRGV plans to enroll its inaugural class in the fall of 2016.
Mobile app publishes Choosing Wisely recommendations
iTriage, an application that helps pa- tients answer common medical ques- tions, will make some ChoosingWisely® recommendations accessible to the pub- lic via its free mobile and web platforms. Choosing Wisely, an initiative of the
ABIM Foundation, promotes conversa- tions between physicians and patients based on evidence provided by specialty societies that have identified tests or pro- cedures that should be discussed. Some campaign materials will be available to iTriage users across the country.With ac- cess to the Choosing Wisely recommen- dations on iTriage’s web and mobile ap- plications, patients can participate more effectively in their health care decisions. Among the recommendations that
will be published by iTriage are these from three specialty societies:
• American College of Physicians: Do not obtain imaging studies in patients with nonspecific low back pain.
• American College of Cardiology: Do not perform stenting of nonculprit lesions during percutaneous coro- nary intervention for uncomplicated, hemodynamically stable ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STE- MI).
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) gave physicians attending the TMA Winter Conference an update on Capitol Hill, calling health care “the single most controversial subject in the political system today.” Senator Cornyn outlined his plan to give states block grants to run their Medicaid programs and enact “Texas-style” medical liability reforms on a national scale.
12 TEXAS MEDICINE April 2014
• American Society of Nuclear Cardiol- ogy: Do not perform radionuclide im- aging as part of routine follow-up in asymptomatic patients.
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