Table of Contents -- December 2002



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Vol. 98 No. 12  

COVER STORY  

Who's an Expert?
The trial lawyers will throw a fit, but legislation to make sure those "experts" who testify in professional liability cases really know what they're talking about and to limit trial judges' discretion in determining who fits the bill as an expert is included in a tort reform package that will be presented to the Texas Legislature next year.

By Walt Borges

LEGISLATIVE AFFAIRS  

Rx Battle
Emboldened by victory in New Mexico, psychologists will go to the Texas Legislature next year to seek the authority to prescribe medications for their patients. Psychiatrists say the psychologists' lack of medical training makes giving them prescriptive authority a bad idea.

By Ken Ortolon

PUBLIC HEALTH  

Midwifery Mess
Texas midwives and obstetricians are at odds over proposed state rules that physicians say will expand midwives' role in delivering newborns despite concerns for the safety of pregnant women and their babies.

By Ken Ortolon

LAW  

Protecting Good Samaritans
Well-intentioned physicians who want to provide charity care or who are thrust into emergency situations may find themselves on the wrong end of a lawsuit. As usual, the law is confusing.

By Walt Borges

PUBLIC HEALTH  

Declaration of Health
State health department officials are preparing to issue a declaration of health this month that for the first time recognizes the relationship of lack of education and lack of income to health problems.

By Ken Ortolon

JOURNAL  

A study of hepatitis A seropositivity in Dallas County, Texas, 1998 through 1999 (Abstract)

By Kimberley G. Fulda, MPH; John C. Licciardone, DO, MS; Antonio Rene, PhD; and Sally Blakley, PhD

Sex and ethnic differences in hip fracture-related mortality in Texas, 1990 through 1998 (Abstract)

By Carlos H. Orces, MD; Shuko Lee, MS; and Benjamin Bradshaw, PhD

 

ROUNDS  

Sesquicentennial and winter conference * Physicians Benevolent Fund * Medicare treatment * Action goes electronic * Competency test answers * McNew award * Public health grants * Antibiotic Bowl * New TMA Foundation board members * Texas Medicine revisited * HIPAA update

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MedBytes  

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