Taking an active role in the mass media is one way that physicians can use their knowledge and expertise to help improve the nation’s health, but the roles of doctor and media personality sometimes come into conflict. The AMA House of Delegates has adopted new ethical guidance for physicians appearing in the media.

“Physicians have well-recognized responsibilities to use their knowledge and skills for the benefit of the community as a whole,” says the AMA Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs report adopted at the 2017 AMA Interim Meeting in Honolulu, and “stepping into the media environment can serve as an extension of this public function.”

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The latest version of the tax system overhaul gaining traction in the U.S. Senate includes a provision the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates would result in 13 million fewer Americans with health insurance coverage over the next decade.

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President Donald Trump today directed the Department of Health and Human Services to declare the opioid epidemic a public health emergency. With the move, aimed at tackling the epidemic tied to hundreds of daily overdose deaths across the nation, the president also ordered other federal agency and department leaders to use any appropriate emergency authority they have to address the problem.

The president specifically announced a plan “to overcome a restrictive 1970s-era rule that prevents states from providing care at certain treatment facilities with more than 16 beds for those suffering from drug addiction.” He said several states had sought relief from this and other requirements and promised that “approvals to unlock treatment for people in need” would “come very fast, not like in the past.”

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