JAMA Editor Quits After Backlash
Dr. Howard Bauchner has been on administrative leave since March while the AMA investigated the origins of a podcast and related tweet that said no physicians are racist. "Although I did not write or even see the tweet, or create the podcast, as editor in chief, I am ultimately responsible for them," Bauchner said in a statement.
Modern Healthcare:
JAMA's Bauchner Resigns Over Controversial Podcast On Racism
The top editor at one of the country's most prominent medical journals has resigned after his publication hosted a February podcast that ignited tremendous backlash by minimizing structural racism in medicine. The American Medical Association announced Tuesday that Dr. Howard Bauchner will voluntarily step down as editor in chief of JAMA and JAMA Network effective June 30. He had been on administrative leave since March while the AMA investigated the origins of a podcast and related tweet that said no physicians are racist. (Bannow, 6/1)
The New York Times:
Editor Of JAMA Leaves After Outcry Over Colleague’s Remarks On Racism
Following an outcry over comments about racism made by an editor at JAMA, the influential medical journal, the top editor, Dr. Howard Bauchner, will step down from his post effective June 30. The move was announced on Tuesday by the American Medical Association, which oversees the journal. Dr. Bauchner, who had led JAMA since 2011, had been on administrative leave since March because of an ongoing investigation into comments made on the journal’s podcast. (Mandavilli, 6/1)
In other news about health care personnel —
AP:
Nurses Walk Off Job, Others Filling Shifts In Montana City
Hundreds of nurses at Logan Health in Kalispell, Montana began a three-day strike Tuesday over demands for better wages and working conditions. More than 100 nurses who were scheduled to work during the strike said they would still work their shifts, the Daily Inter Lake reported. (6/1)
Detroit Free Press:
Michigan Health Care Providers Must Take Implicit Bias Training
Michigan's medical care providers will be required to complete regular "implicit bias" training starting in June 2022 to help ensure the quality of care residents receive is not affected by unconscious racial or other prejudices. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and other state officials announced Tuesday that new rules requiring the training were adopted by the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs. Implicit bias describes prejudices that unknowingly influence thinking and reaction to events and information. Experts say it impacts how Black people and other racial minorities are treated by health professionals and can negatively influence access to COVID-19 tests and other health care services. (Egan, 6/1)
In obituaries —
The Baltimore Sun:
Dr. Michael J. Holliday, Retired Johns Hopkins Otolaryngologist Who Was One Of The Foremost Experts In Acoustic Neuromas, Dies
Dr. Michael J. Holliday, an otolaryngologist who spent more than four decades at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine as a member of its surgical faculty and was a founder of the Skull Base Surgery Center at Hopkins, died of Alzheimer’s disease May 17 at Stella Maris Hospice. The Lutherville resident was 77. “He was a great man and his death is a big loss,” said Dr. Henry Brem, the director of the Johns Hopkins Department of Neurosurgery and a professor of neurosurgery, who began working closely with Dr. Holliday when he came to Hopkins in 1984. (Rasmussen, 6/1)
