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With the economy’s current state of crisis, healthcare has been pushed down on the list of priorities, but it is sure to be at the top of the agenda for whichever candidate is elected president in November. Many physicians surveyed say that given alternatives, they are ready to accept a Canadian-style, single-payer system. From a doctor’s perspective, it seems that anything will be better than our current dysfunctional system. Following the Hippocratic Oath, my inclination would be to make sure that we do no harm. As bad as things may be for some, there is no guarantee they can’t get worse. The physician perspective on this issue often is lacking. I’d like to hear what doctors think we should do to address healthcare reform.

Please share your thoughts by posting a comment on our blog.

A new survey published in JAMA has been getting quite a bit of media coverage. The survey asked 1,200 fourth-year medical students about their residency plans. Just 2 percent said they intend to go into internal medicine, down from 9 percent when a similar survey was conducted in 1990. Meanwhile, presidential candidates from both parties want to expand healthcare access and rely on prevention to reduce costs. Can anything be done to save primary care? My view is that greater reliance on NPs and PAs is inevitable. Merritt Hawkins & Associates recently conducted a survey of 12,000 physicians on behalf of the Physicians’ Foundation for Health Systems Excellence. The survey looks mostly at primary care physicians, their career plans and the state of their practices. The survey, which soon will be announced on our site, does not encourage optimism, which you might guess from the title of our report: “Medical Practice in 2008—Physicians at the Breaking Point.”

I welcome your comments on this subject.

Merritt Hawkins & Associates’ 2008 Review of Physician and CRNA Recruiting Incentives found that primary care physicians are paid less than some CRNAs and surgical and diagnostic specialists. While some say it is absurd to complain about the six-figure salaries physicians earn, others use the disparity in pay to illustrate that doctors are truly underpaid compared to non-physicians.

Wide disparities in compensation among specialties, combined with reimbursement cuts and reduced levels of empowerment, are leaving many physicians feeling underpaid and opting to find non-clinical jobs, limit their practices, work part time or leave the profession altogether.

What are your thoughts? Do you think that physicians can legitimately claim that they are underpaid? Let us know what you think by submitting a comment. We want to hear what you have to say! Read the full article for more details.

We know the challenges of being a physician today are enormous. Some physicians might now second guess their years of training, coupled with the strain of residency and the educational debt, when it comes to the  "privilege" of being told by third party payers how to practice and what they will be paid.

If you are concerned about eroding practice conditions, why not take the national survey of physicians Merritt  Hawkins & Associates is conducting on behalf of the Physicians' Foundation for Health Systems Excellence? The Physicians Foundation is a national group of physician and medical society leaders committed to improving medical practice conditions in the United States. We have mailed this survey to over 300,000 physicians nationwide and we encourage you to participate in this survey, which you can find on our home page.

At the end of the survey we ask physicians what they would say to policy makers and the public about medical practice conditions today. We have received hundreds of comments and would like to receive yours. What would your message be if you could tell the world what is really going on in medicine today?

Let us know by leaving your comments to this post!

This is the second part on the topic of writing a curriculum vitae. For the first three tips, please read part one.

4. Outline your Employment History section in reverse chronological order, listing each practice since completing medical school. This section should begin with your current or last position and include information regarding status (staff physician, for example), the practice, admitting facilities and the usual location and contact information. Briefly describe your responsibilities at each setting, both clinical and office-related, and the procedures you performed.

• If you worked on a locum tenens basis, list each practice setting and the staffing firm responsible for placing you into the position, if applicable. It is important to include all positions—even those you may have left under less than desirable circumstances. Recruiters will dig into any discrepancies they find.

• Limit the explanation for any career or practice changes to the cover letter, rather than the CV. You want those reviewing your material to focus their attention on the positive.

5. There is some debate over the importance of the References section. Several guides to CV writing suggest candidates add an "available upon request" line at the end of the document. We contend, however, that a CV should be succinct, but complete. If you choose to list them, select at least three and no more than six professional references, with name, title and contact information.

6. Try to keep the entire compilation to three pages. If you have room, add citation information for any articles, academic awards, grants and related accomplishments. If you don’t have extra room, alert CV reviewers to these items with a "publications, research grants, continuing medical education and additional information available upon request" at the end of the document.

7. Avoid personal information, military service (unless it applies to your medical employment record), hobbies and other ancillary matters. These activities will not help direct CV reviewers’ attention toward your professional and educational record.

8. Let your personality come through in the cover letter.

• If you've had a state medical license revoked, lost privileges, suffered through malpractice suits or had DEA numbers pulled, address the issues in the cover letter, rather than the CV.

• The key to a successful CV is brevity—and a compelling list of accomplishments. The cover letter allows you the space to explain any past issues or problems and their resolution.

9. Keep your CV completely accurate. Nothing guarantees success more than this simple rule.

I hope you found these tips useful for writing or revising your curriculum vitae. If you have any additional tips for readers, please feel free to share them by posting in the comments below.

Assembling a curriculum vitae (CV) is an exercise in precision within imprecise boundaries. A physician must compose, in a few short pages, a career summary that skips nothing of substance and places events in a properly identified chronology.

While there’s no guarantee that the document you create will fit the expectations of a potential employer, adhering to the following common guidelines will draw positive attention to your CV.

1. Type your CV or create it on a computer. Begin with your full name, current and/or permanent address and all contact information, including home, cell phone, pager and fax numbers as well as your email address.

2. Group your professional and educational highlights into broad, but rational categories. For residents, the most prominent category should be Medical Education.
   • List the name of your medical school, its location (city and state or country), your degree and year of completion. Include as much detail as possible regarding your program and double-check all dates for accuracy—the recruiter will, and CV errors may eliminate you from consideration.

   • The category should also include any residencies, fellowships and internships, indicating the area of specialization, facility, location and year of completion. If you are still in a program, list the date you began and the anticipated date of completion.

   • Provide information regarding undergraduate degrees at the end of this category, and only list the dates you attended, your major area of study and grade point average.

3. Other categories require a simple accounting of paperwork. For example, the Certification section is a simple listing of all boards and national examinations taken, with dates. Licensure includes the states in which you currently hold a license to practice medicine.

Have you had a chance to take our poll on our home page? The current question asks what you, as a physician, plan to do if Medicare cuts physician reimbursement by 10.6 percent this summer, as has been proposed. Simply answer the poll to find out the current standings.

As of this posting, a majority of those who answered the poll said they’ll continue practicing as they are today. The remainder will pursue an option that will limit patient access to their practices, either by retiring, cutting back to part time, not seeing Medicare patients or working locum tenens. These decisions could compound what experts already see as a looming physician shortage.

Merritt Hawkins & Associates provides insight on the physician shortage, which is documented in our book, “Will the Last Physician in America Please Turn Off the Lights?” (For more information about our book or to order a copy, please visit our publisher’s website by clicking here.)

Merritt Hawins' position is that a dearth of physicians will make it extremely difficult to expand access to healthcare services, as both presidential candidates are proposing.

• What are your thoughts on the physician shortage?

• Is patient access to your practice and other physicians’ practices becoming more difficult?

• Do you see more physicians opting for early retirement?

• Will physician supply become a more critical issue in the future?

We welcome your perspective on these questions and encourage you to post your thoughts and opinions on our site.

Merritt Hawkins & Associates is happy to announce the launch our new Web site. As you have probably noticed, the overall look and feel of MerrittHawkins.com has improved significantly. The redesigned site has all the useful information and features as before, but we have now added a number of new features you will find useful.

The Job Search has been enhanced with new functionality. Now you can sort your results by criteria like potential income, for example. You can also access the Job Search from most of the Candidates pages by clicking the orange button in the main navigation bar.

If you don't find the job you are looking for this time, you can now sign up for Email Job Alerts. We will send you a weekly email with the jobs that match your criteria. Set up your Email Job Alerts preferences today!

If you are curious about the purchasing power of your income in another location, please try our new Cost of Living Calculator.

We hope you enjoy our new Web site, we and look forward to your feedback. Remember, you can also submit questions to be addressed in future blog posts by clicking on the banner to the left. Thanks for stopping by!