News Briefs: Week of Nov. 2-6

This roundup includes the following news briefs:

The U.S. Senate has confirmed President Obama's selection of family physician Regina Benjamin, M.D., M.B.A., of Bayou La Batre, Ala., as the next U.S. surgeon general.

Benjamin, an AAFP member since 1987, is the founder and CEO of the Bayou La Batre Rural Health Clinic along Alabama's Gulf Coast. She has spent the past 20 years caring for some 2,500 of the state's working poor. Senators moved quickly to approve Benjamin after the Obama administration declared a national emergency in response to the novel A (H1N1) influenza pandemic.

The National Health Service Corps, or NHSC, announced recently (1-page PDF; About PDFs) that it has simplified the application process for its loan repayment program, in which physicians can exchange as much as $50,000 in medical school debt for two years of service in medically underserved communities.

According to the NHSC, applicants to the program now have fewer documents to file, and supporting forms and documents may be faxed. Step-by-step application instructions and a checklist have been added to simplify the process. In addition, eligibility and contract requirements now are easier to find in the NHSC's Applicant Information Bulletin (26-page PDF; About PDFs).

Individuals with pending applications do not need to reapply. The NHSC encourages applicants to apply early because funding is awarded on a first-come, first-served basis. Applications are being accepted through July 29, 2010.

The Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education, or ACCME, has launched a new multimedia Education and Training Web section that is designed to help CME providers develop activities that meet the ACCME's standards and that focus on practice gaps and the improvement of physician competence, performance and patient care.

According to an ACCME press release, the Web-based resource features such offerings as "Perspectives: CME Leaders Speak Out," a collection of video interviews with CME and other health system leaders on planning effective education strategies, and a video FAQ in which ACCME Chief Executive Murray Kopelow, M.D., describes the 2006 ACCME accreditation criteria through a series of brief "how-to" vignettes.

The FDA has posted several consumer education videos on its Web site that family physicians may want to encourage their patients to view. Topics include