Organized labor can play an influential role in preventing and responding to workplace bullying, both as a safeguarding presence for workers and as a political and social force for positive change.  For many years, I have regarded that role as one of unrealized potential.  But recent developments give me considerable hope of ongoing partnerships with unions to address workplace bullying.  In particular, more unions are getting behind the Healthy Workplace Bill, anti-bullying legislation that I authored to fill a significant gap in worker protections. 

The Potential Role of Organized Labor to Combat Workplace Bullying

Unions can play an important role in preventing and responding to workplace bullying in at least four ways:

• Negotiate CBA Provisions — Unions should bargain for collective bargaining agreement provisions that protect their members against abusive supervision.

• Use Existing Contract Provisions — Even in the absence of specific protections against abusive supervision, the general…

• http://www.fda.gov/downloads/MedicalDevices/DeviceRegulationandGuidance/GuidanceDocuments/UCM416685.pdf

Laboratory Developed Tests

Questions about the accuracy and marketing of Laboratory Developed Tests (LDTs) have led to the current debate whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should regulate a subset of diagnostic tests currently exempted from oversight. Designed to bring clinical tests to market that the costly FDA process would otherwise preclude, such as those for rare diseases, the LDT pathway bypasses Federal regulation and accountability.  Questions about the validity of these tests have raised concerns over patient safety and a call for oversight.  Among those asking for regulation are Massachusetts Senators Edward J. Markey and Elizabeth Warren.

Opponents of regulation argue the LDT  pathway enables new and pioneering tests to be developed quickly and improve patient care.  A recent viewpoint piece published in JAMA opposing regulation noted such advances have occurred “in large part because of the nimbleness of relatively small clinical and academic laboratories that can quickly respond to new…

To have striven, to have made an effort, to have been true to certain ideals — this alone is worth the struggle. We are here to add what we can to, not to get what we can from, life. – William Osler

Diagnostic Medicine

Diagnostic medicine is the process of identifying the condition or disease that a patient has and  ruling out conditions or diseases the patient does not have through assessment of  the patient’s signs, symptoms, and results of various diagnostic tests.

Diagnostic Test Accuracy

Diagnostic test accuracy is simply the ability of the test to discriminate among alternative states of health (Zweig and Campbell, 1993).

If a test’s results do not differ between alternative states of health, then the test has insignificant accuracy; if the results do not overlap with other states of health then the test has perfect accuracy.  Most tests accuracies fall between these two extremes.

The intrinsic accuracy of…

Via the Daily Beast:   http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/03/23/american-doctors-are-killing-themselves-and-no-one-is-talking-about-it.html

Excerpt:

“Doctors who acknowledge problems with substances or mental health are typically referred to a physicians health program, or PHP. These organizations evaluate, monitor, and treat physicians. Established initially in the 1970s, PHPs, which exist in almost every state, were intended to divert physicians suffering from alcohol or drug problems from censure from their state medical boards. PHPs are incorporated as nonprofits and have autonomy from the boards. But some PHPs breach confidentiality if they fear a doctor is a danger to the public. And some state medical boards also fund their PHPs. Since the boards hold the keys to licensure, many say this is a conflict of interest.

There are growing concerns about whether PHPs have the right approach to the job. They typically send doctors to rehab programs rooted in the faith-and-abstinence principles of Alcoholics Anonymous. While AA’s 12 steps might work…

Physician Suicide.

Physician Suicide 101:  Secrets, lies and solutions by Dr. Pamela Wible, M.D., is now featured on KevinMD.com.  Please read and comment!   We need to use this as a stepping stone to start discussing the Elephant in the room; state Physician Health Programs (PHPs) organized under the Federation of State Physician Health Programs.  These programs once served the dual purpose of helping sick doctors and protecting the public from harm.

Taken over by the “impaired physician” movement the current manifestation is one of absolute power and unrestrained managerial authority with no meaningful oversight, regulation or accountability.  It is a culture of institutional injustice that is preventing doctors from seeking help for fear of being ensnared and monitored by them.  Those being monitored by them are subject to bullying, abuse and forced 12-step indoctrination under threat of loss of licensure.  Many of these doctors do not even have an addiction…