Resident hours
The United States Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education has approved an 18-month review (www.acgme.org/acWebsite/home/nascaletter_feb2009.pdf) of resident duty hour standards in light of an Institute of Medicine committee recommendation that “duty hours should not exceed 16 hours per shift unless an uninterrupted 5-hour break for sleep is provided within shifts that last up to 30 hours.” The Institute’s Committee on Optimizing Graduate Medical Trainee (Resident) Hours and Work Schedules to Improve Patient Safety also recommended that an external independent body be created to provide oversight and enforcement of resident duty hours (www.iom.edu/Object.File/Master/60/469/residency%20hours%20revised%20for%20web.pdf).
Mobility
Doctors, nurses, pharmacists, paramedics and a host of other health professionals will obtain increased portability of their professional licences as of April 1 as a result of an amendment to the Agreement of Internal Trade reached by federal and provincial ministers of trade. The move will allow family doctors who are not certified by the College of Family Physicians of Canada and specialists not certified by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, but who hold unrestricted licences within a province, to move to another jurisdiction.
FDA commissioner
United States President Barack Obama has appointed former New York City health commission Dr. Margaret “Peggy” Hamburg as the Food and Drug Administration’s commissioner. Obama also indicated that his new administration will undertake a comprehensive review of FDA structure and operations. As well, he appointed a new Food Safety Working Group to advise him “on improving coordination throughout the government, examining and upgrading food safety laws, and enforcing laws that will keep the American people safe.”
Sport supplements
The not-for-profit organization NSF International has launched an online initiative (www.nsfsport.com) aimed at providing athletes and coaches with a list of dietary supplements and sports nutrition products that can be safely used without violating international antidoping rules.