Latest news with #specialists
CNA
11-07-2025
- Business
- CNA
Race for world's biggest tech firms to hire AI talent heats up
The global artificial intelligence race is heating up, with tech industry players going all out to acquire specialists with the coveted know-how and skills. Some companies are offering multi-million dollar pay packages to the top minds in AI in a bid to hire them. CNA's Ira Spitzer finds out how this sprint for talent intertwines with geopolitics.
Free Malaysia Today
01-07-2025
- Health
- Free Malaysia Today
Specialist recognition finally granted to parallel pathway grads
Health minister Dzulkefly Ahmad signing the ministerial order to implement the changes to the Medical Act 1971, passed in July last year. (Facebook pic) PETALING JAYA : The health ministry has cleared the final hurdle for hundreds of medical graduates trained via the parallel pathway to be officially listed in the National Specialists Register (NSR), ending a year-long delay that had left them in limbo. Health minister Dzulkefly Ahmad announced today he had signed the ministerial order to enforce the amendments to the Medical Act 1971, with the changes coming into force on July 1. The move will allow the Malaysian Medical Council's list of recognised qualifications to now cover all the foreign universities that were involved in the production of parallel pathway specialists. In a Facebook post, Dzulkefly said the order will now be submitted to the Attorney-General's Chambers for gazetting. 'God willing, the amendments will come into force on July 1,' he said. Dzulkefly said this is not just a matter of amending the law, but also improving the future of healthcare in Malaysia. 'With this amendment, the two routes to become specialists – namely the parallel pathway and the master's programme – can be implemented in a more organised manner, with transparency in accordance with the existing laws,' he said. Senator RA Lingeshwaran, a vocal proponent of the reform, hailed the minister for following through on his pledge to resolve the issue. 'This is a victory for the hundreds of specialists who have been unable to be listed in the NSR because of bureaucracy. 'This will shorten the waiting time in hospitals to see specialists,' he told FMT. The Medical (Amendment) Bill 2024 was passed last July after mounting pressure from professional groups and MPs. The amendments followed the controversy over the MMC's refusal to recognise certain parallel pathway programmes, such as the cardiothoracic surgery qualification from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, despite a shortage of such specialists in government hospitals.
Medscape
27-06-2025
- Health
- Medscape
Canadian Physicians Report Happiness, Acknowledge Challenges
Canadian physicians reported a high rate of happiness at work and in their home life in a new physician wellness survey conducted by Medscape Medical News . At the same time, many physicians acknowledged experiencing work-related burnout and depression. The national survey included information submitted by 744 respondents (66% specialists, 34% general practitioners [GPs]). Most respondents lived in Manitoba (42%), followed by Alberta (17%), Prince Edward Island (13%), and Newfoundland/Labrador (12%). Smaller proportions came from Ontario and Quebec, the country's most populated provinces. While 37% of respondents reported working in hospitals, 24% were based in GP groups or private practice settings, 19% were based in clinics, 15% were based in other settings (including virtually, working from home, and long-term care), and 5% were in academic settings. More than half (57%) of respondents identified as men and 41% as women. The majority (91%) were aged 45 years or older, including 24% who were aged 70 years or older. Widespread Happiness While most respondents reported being very or somewhat happy with their work life (68%) and personal life (74%), 24% reported experiencing burnout, 3% reported depression, and 11% reported both. The remaining 62% reported experiencing neither condition. Burnout was more commonly reported by respondents younger than 45 years (about 40%) compared with older respondents (23%). Women reported a higher rate of burnout than men (35% vs 17%), and respondents based in an office practice were more likely to report burnout than those working in a hospital setting (33% vs 23%). While 57% of physicians who reported burnout or depression attributed some of it to personal life, 73% attributed all or most of it to work. About 69% said that work burnout had negatively affected their personal relationships. This effect on personal relationships was most evident in respondents younger than 45 years (90%), compared with those aged 45 years or older (65%). Health and wellness were a priority or somewhat of a priority for 91% of respondents, with exercise being a commonly reported activity to achieve them (72%). Exercise was a daily activity for 17% of respondents. About 30% reported engaging in it two or three times a week, and 26% reported exercising four to five times weekly. Slightly more respondents (73%) reported spending time with family and friends and pursuing hobbies as their way to stay well. Healthy eating was reported by 64%, and 58% reported getting enough sleep. Yearly vacation time totals of 3-4 weeks were common (36%), and many respondents (42%) had more weeks of vacation than that. Almost half (48%) of respondents said that they would take a salary reduction to achieve better work-life balance, while 27% said that they would not, and 25% said that they were not sure. Respondents younger than 45 years were more likely to endorse this option than older respondents (61% vs 47%). A desire to spend less personal time online was reported by 49% of respondents, with 56% reporting spending 2-4 hours a day online for personal reasons, including social media, texting, movies, news, and other interests. Poor Self-Assessment? Commenting on the survey results for Medscape Medical News , Catherine Pound, MD, director of Physician Support and Wellness at the Canadian Medical Protective Association (CMPA), said the rate of burnout and depression in the survey is likely an underestimate. The CMPA recently launched the Physician Well-Being Index, a validated tool that has found higher rates of physician depression and burnout, said Pound. 'The level of distress we are seeing is about two thirds of physicians who are struggling or in distress, and that level was a bit lower in the Medscape survey. 'What was super interesting to me is that the Medscape survey asked people to self-assess, as opposed to the Well-Being Index, which gives you a result of well-being based on the questions they ask,' Pound added. Physicians are not good at assessing their own mental states, she said. 'If I ask a physician if they're distressed, they may say no, but if I give them a validated tool, the result may be different.' The Well-Being Index has thus far collected almost 4000 responses from 117,000 CMPA members. While those responses might reflect a self-selection bias of respondents who are feeling higher than average levels of distress, Pound said that the findings dovetail with the results of the Medscape survey. 'All across Canada, there's a human resource crisis. We know that physicians are working really hard. They're working long hours, and we know that there's a lot of emotional distress and burnout. Physician wellness is a pillar of the healthcare system. If you don't have physician well-being, then we know there's an increased risk of patient dissatisfaction, there's an increased risk of patient safety events, and there's an increased risk of burnout, and the more physicians who leave the system because they're burnt out. It's a vicious cycle.' Small Numbers Margot Burnell, MD, president of the Canadian Medical Association, said the Medscape survey provides more information on this area and is consistent with research underway by her organization, but it includes a relatively small sample size. 'We will be releasing our national physician health survey results in the fall, so seeing something a little more robust will be good to add to all of these data points on this important topic,' she told Medscape Medical News. Burnell identified four main opportunities to alleviate physician burnout and improve well-being, including facilitating physician autonomy, easing administrative burden, streamlining team-based care models, and improving access to patient health data through electronic medical health records. 'There were several bills that died when government was prorogued, and one was on connected care and data interoperability,' she explained. 'There is an imperative to get that back onto the legislative table. We will be working with all parties to identify solutions that we can move through with our stakeholders — federal, provincial, and territorial medical societies and governments — to keep healthcare at the forefront.' Pound and Burnell reported having no relevant financial relationships.
Yahoo
15-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Special care changes needed as costs push patients away
High specialist medical costs cause almost two million Australians to delay or skip appointments, but a report suggests stripping public funding to doctors charging excessive fees could be part of the remedy. About 1.9 million Australians are delaying or skipping critical medical care due to exorbitant fees for specialist doctors, a report by public policy think tank the Grattan Institute has found. Some private specialist doctors charge patients two to three times more than the rate Medicare sets for those services, the report found. It said patients of one specialist forked out an average of $300 per year in 2023 - up 73 per cent since 2010. Average out-of-pocket costs for extreme-fee-charging specialists in 2023 reached $671 for psychiatry services and more than $350 for endocrinology, cardiology, paediatrics, immunology and neurology services. The high costs leave critical health care out of reach for millions, causing patients in poorer pockets of Australia to wait months or years for urgent appointments, and leading to missed diagnoses, avoidable pain and added pressure on hospitals. About four in 10 Australians visited a specialist in 2023/24. About two-thirds across all specialties are private appointments, with patients receiving a Medicare rebate and paying a gap fee. Grattan's Health Program director Peter Breadon said the system was broken from start to end. "Everywhere, from how the system is planned and how training is funded through to how we target public investment and integrate the system between primary care and specialist care, it all really needs a lot of change," he told AAP. Grattan's recommendations include scrapping Medicare subsidies to specialists who charge excessive fees and publicly naming them. "Hopefully it would discourage those specialists who are charging really unreasonable fees, but this is a problem that needs many solutions," Mr Breadon said. The report also recommends governments provide one million extra specialist appointment services every year in areas that receive the least care, a system in which GPs can get written advice from other specialists, modernise public specialist clinics, and allocate $160 million to expand specialist training for undersupplied specialties and rural training. Australian Medical Association President Danielle McMullen said public hospital underinvestment and lagging Medicare rebates made it harder for patients. "The risks of delaying medical care are that the health problem gets worse," she said, adding it also puts pressure on GPs and hospitals in public and private clinics. The doctors' association supports most of Grattan's recommendations, but said removing Medicare funding from specialists who charged excessive fees was not practical. As governments negotiate the National Health Reform agreement, Dr McMullen urged leaders to sort out longer-term funding for public hospitals and develop a health workforce data tracker to show where investment was needed. Federal Health Minister Mark Butler said private health insurers and specialists needed to do more to protect patients from exorbitant bills. He said the Albanese government would upgrade the Medical Costs Finder, which helps patients find the best value for specialist medical advice, and was committed to working with stakeholders to improve cost transparency.
The Guardian
04-06-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
More Australians can't afford specialist fees. Experts say it's ‘not in the spirit of Medicare'
The cost of an initial dermatology appointment is now up to nearly $300 on average, new data shows. It reflects a broader problem: that Medicare rebates are not keeping up with the pace specialist fees are rising. Online healthcare directory Cleanbill, which has tracked bulk billing rates among GPs, is expanding to provide data on out-of-pocket costs to see other health professionals, starting with dermatology. The report, released on Thursday, found the Medicare rebate in March 2017 for an initial appointment with a dermatologist was $72.75, while the out-of-pocket cost was $148.73. By March 2025, the rebate had risen by $11.40, to $84.15, while the average out-of-pocket costs, at $210.18, were $61.45 more expensive. Over eight years, average out-of-pocket costs for an initial consultation had increased by over 40%, and average follow-up consultation costs had increased by over 55%. The rebate rose by less than 16%. Cleanbill compared the 2017 data collected by predecessor MindTheGap for 165 dermatology clinics still currently operating, with its own data collected in October. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email Based on all 280 dermatology clinics Cleanbill identified currently operating, the average upfront cost of an appointment was $296.71 – more than 3.5 times the Medicare rebate. Cleanbill's report highlighted that as private health insurance does not cover out-of-hospital consultations, these out-of-pockets costs are being borne entirely by patients. Private health insurance mainly covers the cost of private hospital treatment, and may also cover non-Medicare subsidised services such as physiotherapy, psychology and dental services – but not GP or specialist consultations. 'These out-of-pocket costs far exceed the increases that we've seen to the Medicare rebate,' Cleanbill's chief executive, James Gillespie, said. 'In these circumstances, it's easy to see why the number of Australians putting off specialist care due to cost has risen from 176,000 in 2016-17 to 900,000 in 2023-24,' he wrote in the report, citing Australian Bureau of Statistics data. Many specialist services are available to patients for free in public outpatient clinics, but patients need a referral from their GP to qualify, and each hospital or specialist clinic has its own process for assessing urgency, accepting referral letters and making appointments. A GP referral is needed to claim the Medicare rebate at a specialist appointment, meaning a second round of out-of-pocket costs that 'stacks one on top of the other', Gillespie said. Gillespie said it was reasonable to extrapolate similar price increases across other medical specialists than dermatologists. The latest government data on medical specialist consultations showed patient out-of-pocket costs in non-hospital settings increased in real terms (adjusting for inflation) from $1.1bn in 2012-13 to $1.9bn in 2022-23 – or 'from $213 per patient to $294 (38%)'. In the same period, Medicare benefits paid by the government increased in real terms from $2.5bn to $2.9bn – or 16%. The government this year promised $7m to expand the much-derided Medical Costs Finder website, which the former Coalition government spent $24m setting up to see only 70 specialists – out of 11,000 registered to practice – choose to voluntarily display their fee information as of March 2025. Prof Yuting Zhang, an expert in health economics at the University of Melbourne, said providing cost information was only a first step – and the government had not outlined a policy to lower fees. Zhang and her colleagues at the Health Analytics, Leadership and Economics Hub mapped specialist fees in 2023 across different areas, finding on average that rheumatology had the highest fees, followed by neurology and immunology. Specialist fees have gone up 'a lot' but the Medicare schedule fee hasn't been properly indexed, Zhang said, remaining 'quite flat' for about the last 20 years, leaving patients to absorb the increasing gap. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion Some fees were 'super high' at about $1,200 but cost varied widely even within the same specialty for exactly the same services, she said. 'Some people might be willing to pay a lot more to see a specialist and thinking the price might be an indicator for quality – which I can assure you, it's never the case,' Zhang said. 'More expensive doesn't really mean better.' A third of people living with chronic diseases say they are not able to attend specialist appointments due to the cost, a study published in May in the journal Health Policy found, with both the upfront cost and out-of-pocket costs being a major barrier to care. Australian National University researchers analysed the experiences of more than 1,800 Australians living with a range of chronic conditions within 37 studies. Assoc prof Jane Desborough, the lead author of the study, said while GPs face 'consistent pressure' to bulk-bill, backed by policy initiatives, there is 'no similar conversation about non-GP specialists who are also trained in the public system, who are also remunerated through Medicare … yet from the evidence, it seems quite uncommon for them to bulk-bill'. Many Australians with multiple chronic conditions often need to see several different specialists; even a person with a single chronic condition such as psoriatic arthritis needs both a dermatologist and rheumatologist. Those who struggled to afford specialist appointments reported often choosing who they saw based on 'what's hurting most at the time', Desborough said. Chronic illness often impacts people's capacity to work. The frustration of not being able to afford specialist visits is compounded by the long wait list for public specialist clinics, she said, as well as an increased trend by specialists towards exclusive private practice. Those who had full access to the specialist clinics in the public system were 'very grateful for what Medicare does,' Desborough said. But as for others, having to forego important aspects of their life – like food choices, social activities, family holidays, children's sport, school excursions – to access healthcare: 'That's not in the spirit of Medicare,' she said. The health minister, Mark Butler, said the private health sector, including insurers and specialists, 'need[s] to do more to protect patients for exorbitant bills'. Zhang said specialist medical colleges could play a role, by developing codes of conduct around fee practices and scrutinising members who consistently charge high fees. The government could also open more public clinics offering free specialist care for those who cannot afford the gap fees in private clinics, Zhang said.
