The American Bar Association Judicial Division Lawyers Conference’s Committee on Special Masters has put out a call for feedback on the draft “Checklist for Making Use of Special Masters to Help Deal with the New Normal” that was issued in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. 

The International Chamber of Commerce’s (“ICC”) Court of Arbitration has issued a “Guidance Note on Possible Measures Aimed at Mitigating the Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic.” 

In an unpublished opinion, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has denied a payday lender’s motion to reconsider a district court’s order refusing to send a class-action lawsuit to arbitration despite that the Supreme Court of Texas later issued an opposite holding in a similar dispute.

Because in-person mediations and arbitrations have become a public health risk due to COVID-19, the National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals (“NADN”) has taken measures to ensure that members of the Academy are able to serve firms with online mediation sessions using the latest video conferencing platforms.

By Holly Hayes “The era of ‘one patient, one doctor’ is coming to an end, and so today’s trainees will practice in collaborative teams rather than individually,” Carl Snyderman, MD, David Eibling, MD and Jonas Johnson, MD state in their article “The Physician as Team Leader: New Job Skills Are Required” in Academic Medicine, a journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). Atul Gawande, MD agrees with the concept of the physician as team leader when he responded to a comment during his Live Chat on the New Yorker blog in August, “Yes, your doctor should be the “team captain.” – Yes, your doctor should be willing and able to explain what’s going on: to find out from your mother-in-law and the family what your priorities are; – to formulate a plan based on the most effective known means to achieve those priorities and explain it to you each day; – to get everyone together in following through on that plan; – then report on how that plan has gone and make adjustments with you.” Why are physicians the best team member to be the captain? The AAMC article states: “The physician is a facilitator and communicator and must make decisions about the allocation of health care resources, evaluate the evidence for best practices, and monitor quality of care.” What skillset is needed for physicians to lead a team of healthcare workers to improve quality, increase availability of healthcare and reduce costs? Snyderman, et al believe: The next generation of physicians will need to have an expanded skill set that borrows from the curricula of other disciplines, specifically training in business practices. Executive training provides the necessary leadership skills and fosters strategic thinking. Knowledge of health care economics is important for optimal utilization of limited resources and alignment of health care practices with business principles. An understanding of process control in industry can be applied to maximizing the efficiency of health care dollars and to monitoring outcomes with enhanced quality of care. Training in human resources provides the people skills necessary to manage a team and communicate effectively with a diverse patient population. Decision modeling results in a more analytical approach to complex decisions and the incorporation of factors (quality of life, risk valuation) that are important to patients. Service marketing teaches a patient-oriented approach that maintains focus on the patient (consumer) rather than on the profit. A business school approach fosters a “big picture” mentality that challenges physicians to think about the societal issues of health care that have widespread benefits. Holly Hayes is a mediator at Karl Bayer, Dispute Resolution Expert where she focuses on mediation of health care disputes. Holly holds a B.A. from Southern Methodist University and a Masters in Health Administration from Duke University. She can be reached at holly@karlbayer.com.  

by Holly Hayes The New York Times Health/Science blog posted an article titled, “The Bullying Culture of Medical School” by Pauline W. Chen, MD. The post states: For 30 years, medical educators have known that becoming a doctor requires more than an endless array of standardized exams, long hours on the wards and years spent in training. For many medical students, verbal and physical harassment and intimidation are part of the exhausting process, too. The need for a change in medical education has been a topic of discussion for many years. One medical school became a leader in adopting such changes. Starting in 1995, educators at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, began instituting a series of schoolwide reforms. They adopted policies to reduce abuse and promote prevention; established a Gender and Power Abuse Committee, mandated lectures, workshops and training sessions for students, residents and faculty members; and created an office to accept confidential reports, investigate and then address allegations of mistreatment. To gauge the effectiveness of these initiatives, the school also began asking all students at the end of their third year to complete a five-question survey on whether they felt they had been mistreated over the course of the year. The school has just published the sobering results of the surveys over the last 13 years. While there appears to have been a slight drop in the numbers of students who report experiencing mistreatment, more than half of all medical students still said that they had been intimidated or physically or verbally harassed. The National Patient Safety Foundation has published a free publication: Unmet Needs: Teaching Physicians to Provide Safe Patient Care that addresses reforming medical education to improve patient safety. Is healthcare ready to incorporate conflict engagement skills in the training of our next generation of caregivers? Holly Hayes is a mediator at Karl Bayer, Dispute Resolution Expert where she focuses on mediation of health care disputes. Holly holds a B.A. from Southern Methodist University and a Masters in Health Administration from Duke University. She can be reached at holly@karlbayer.com.