| Dear Reader,
Happy New (and Costly) Year! Just-released federal data show
that health care spending was nearly 15% of gross domestic product
in 2002 and rose 9.3% for the year -- the largest increase in
11 years.
Where will the spending end? Will we continue to see large
spending increases for years to come? And what role, if any,
do allied health professionals play in the increases (and can
they help keep costs down)?
As always, your feedback on these or any other issues is welcome;
e-mail fred_lenhoff@ama-assn.org.
Best Regards,
Fred Donini-Lenhoff
Health Professions E-Letter, 1/2004
1. New AMA health professions directory
available soon
2. Polysomnographic group has new
headquarters
3. Facts "R" Us
4. What's up with massage therapy
and dance therapy?
5. Online Educator Guide for rad
tech educators debuts
6. New Mexico hospital is proving
ground for art/music therapies
7. Quotable: Where's the diversity?
8. Quotable, Part II: Why no diversity?
9. Diagnostic medical sonography
is "Allied Health Profession of the Month"
1. New AMA health professions
directory available soon
The new 2004-2005 edition of the AMA's Health Professions
Career and Education Directory is currently being typeset
and will printed soon. This updated edition includes information
on 6,500 educational programs in 64 different professions. New
professions this year include:
- Clinical assistant
- Dance therapist
- Massage therapist
- Surgical assistant
To order your copy, call 1-800-621-8335 or visit http://www.amapress.com.
To receive a copy of the order form, send an e-mail to meded@ama-assn.org.
For fastest service, be sure to specify the phrase "HPCED
order form" in the subject line of your e-mail.
2. Polysomnographic groups has new
headquarters
The Association of Polysomnographic Technologists (APT)
has announced a new management contract with the American
Academy of Sleep Medicine.
"The [APT] Board of Directors believes the AASM is the
best management option for our association because of their
measured success in the management of allied sleep-related
organizations and the opportunities for synergy among these
organizations," said APT President Rose Ann Zumstein,
RPSGT.
The APT membership will also now have a larger voice in the
medical and political spheres as it joins more than 7,000
other clinicians, technicians and researchers currently managed
by the AASM.
The APT's new contact information is:
One Westbrook Corporate Center, Suite 920
Westchester, IL 60154
(708) 492-0796
(708) 273-9344
The APT Web site remains http://www.aptweb.org.
3. Facts "R" Us
- Only 5% of smokers successfully quit each year
- Asthma is the No. 1 reason for school absenteeism
- 60% of Mississippians are overweight
The weekly newspaper American Medical News encounters fascinating
pieces of information like these every week. For a look at
the year just past, as reflected in a selection of the most
interesting or noteworthy facts from each issue, see:
http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/site/facts03.htm
4. What's up with massage therapy and
dance therapy?
As noted in article #1 above, these two professions are now
part of the Health Professions Career and Education Directory.
Here are a few selected facts about each profession:
- Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, wrote, "The
physician must be experienced in many things, but most
assuredly in rubbing"
- The number of American adults receiving a massage from
a massage therapist each year jumped from 8% in 1997 to
21% in 2003
- Approximately 19% of AMTA members report that they work
in a medical setting
- The new Directory includes 69 programs accredited by
the
Commission on Massage Therapy Accreditation
For more information, see:
American Massage Therapy Association
http://www.amtamassage.org
NOTE: You may also be interested in "Massage Therapists
in California," from the Center for the Health Professions,
University of California – San Francisco (Adobe Acrobat
Reader required):
http://futurehealth.ucsf.edu/pdf_files/massage_therapists.pdf
- Dance/movement therapy, a creative arts therapy, emerged
as a distinct profession in the 1940s
- There are approximately 1,203 dance/movement therapists
in 46 states and 29 foreign countries
- The new Directory includes 5 programs approved by the
American Dance Therapy Association
For more information, see: http://www.adta.org
5. Online Educator Guide for rad tech
educators debuts
"Educator Guide," the newest section of American
Registry of Radiologic Technologists' web site, presents targeted
information in a user-friendly way for the professionals who
are preparing the RTs of tomorrow.
The Web site supplements the twice-yearly "Educator
Update" newsletter that ARRT mails to more than 3,000
educators across the country.
"Educators are a very important constituency at ARRT,"
said Ginny Haselhuhn, BS, RT(R), ARRT's assistant executive
director. "We are partners in introducing students to
the profession of radiologic technology and to the certification
and registration process."
To access the guide, click on the indicated button at the
left on ARRT's home page, http://www.arrt.org.
6. New Mexico hospital
is proving ground for art/music therapies
An article in the December 16 New York Times ("Doctors
Promote Healing, With a Zing of the String of a Harp")
profiles the Arts in Medicine program at the University of
New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque.
"[T]he hospital staff has become accustomed to Ms. Repar's
team of ‘roving rejuvenators' wheeling Yamaha keyboards
past a nursing station, or a harpist unpacking her instrument
in the emergency waiting room, or a yoga instructor setting
up in a doctors' lounge," writes Ben Daitz, MD.
"Nurses and the cleaning staff members have their shoulders
massaged. Children waiting in the emergency room color with
an art therapist, while a graduate student in music plays
her harp. Nurses write free verse over lunch. And several
doctors who are members of the Swamp Coolers, a bluegrass
band, play a Bill Monroe tune outside the cafeteria."
7. Quotable: Where's the diversity?
"What do Martha Stewart house paint and the allied health
workforce have in common? Give up? Both come in any shade
of white you can imagine. Of course, the controversial diva
of decorating also offers 4,000 or so other choices, whereas
the color palette for allied health professionals is currently
much more limited. In fact, statistics indicate that minorities
comprise only about 10% of allied health care professionals
in this increasingly diverse country."
- from "Where's the Diversity," by Sharon Palmer,
RD, in the Fall 2003 issue of Diversity: Allied Health Careers
8. Quotable, Part II: Why no
diversity?
"The problem of underrepresentation of many minority
groups in the health professions is the end-result of profound
disparities in educational opportunities and support, beginning
at the earliest schooling stages. To address racial and ethnic
disparities in the health professions means to confront fundamental
social inequities in educational and life opportunities in
the US."
- from a comprehensive study by the Center for California
Health Workforce Studies of programs attempting to enhance
racial and ethnic diversity of health professions. The study
was published by the California Endowment.
To view/download "Strategies to Improve the Diversity
of the Health Professions," (Adobe Acrobat Reader required),
see:
http://www.calendow.org/pub/publications/StrategiesforImproving11-03.pdf
9. Diagnostic medical sonography
is "Allied Health Profession of the Month"
Now featured on the Health Professions Network's Web site
is the profession of diagnostic medical sonography:
http://www.healthpronet.org/ahp_month/12_03.html
Profiled in recent months were orthoptics, art therapy, music
therapy, and occupational therapy.
To request that HealthProNet.org feature your health profession
in the future, send an e-mail to: webmaster@healthpronet.org
ABOUT US . . .
The Health Professions Career and Education E-letter is produced
by the American Medical Association (AMA).
This periodic newsletter covers educational trends and career-related
issues for more than 50 professions
that participate in the delivery of health care, including diagnostic
and rehabilitative services, therapeutic treatments, health
or information services management, counseling for psychosocial
and cognitive needs, or related services.
Newsletter readers and contributors include staff of health
professions accrediting agencies, educational programs and institutions,
professional organizations, certifying/licensing boards, and
media contacts.
Previous issues are available online at: http://www.ama-assn.org/go/hpe-letter
GIVE US YOUR STORY IDEAS AND FEEDBACK
What's happening in the world of health professions? If you
have any leads or story ideas, please contact us. Also, let
us know what you think about this newsletter--and feel free
to forward it to your colleagues.
Direct suggestions, comments, compliments, gripes, to:
Fred Donini-Lenhoff, Medical Education Products
515 N State St, Chicago, IL 60610
312 464-4635
312 464-5830 fax
fred_lenhoff@ama-assn.org
http://www.ama-assn.org/go/hpe-letter
SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE
To subscribe or unsubscribe to this e-letter, please send name,
organization, title, address, phone, fax, web address, and of
course your e-mail to: dorothy_grant@ama-assn.org
Copyright 2003, American Medical Association
Submitted By: David
Yoder |
