Read article – William Weeks, professor of psychiatry, community and family medicine, and of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, is quoted about how a new study that found there is a large salary gap between white male doctors and everyone else has a major flaw: a significant part of the data the finding depends on didn’t identify whether the doctors were primary care doctors or specialists. Weeks, a health economist and physician, roundly dismissed the study’s findings for that reason. His research has found no evidence of a racial pay gap among doctors. “This is really not good research,” says Weeks. “The key question is, do women or black or minority [doctors] have access—can they get into these higher-paid sub-specialties? … That’s a really different question and a really important one.”

Read article – Quotes William Weeks, professor of psychiatry, community and family medicine, and of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, about a new study that examines the correlation between race and gender, and how much physicians are paid. “The real issue that’s driving their results is that there are many more white specialists than black specialists, and specialists make a lot more money than primary care physicians,” says Weeks.

Read article – Dennis McCullough, honorary associate professor of community and family medicine and pioneer of the “slow medicine” movement, which advocates palliative care over invasive regimens for older patients suffering from the inevitable and irreversible decline of aging, died last Friday in Bar Harbor, Me. He was 72.

Read article – Quotes Gary R. Bond, professor of psychiatry and author of a recent study that found most people with serious mental illnesses can improve the quality of their lives when they have outside support to find and keep a job, but most states lack the funding for those type of resources.

Read article – Dennis McCullough, a geriatrician and leading proponent of the “slow medicine” movement, in which a team of physicians, nurses and family partner to improve a senior’s care, died Friday morning in Bar Harbor, Maine. He was 72. During his more than 40 years in medicine, he held posts in community medicine at the Geisel School of Medicine and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. He also served as the first medical director of Kendal at Hanover, a retirement community that offers long-term care services to seniors.

Read article – Cites a study conducted by researchers at the Geisel School of Medicine (lead by Anna Adachi-Mejia, assistant professor of pediatrics, community and family medicine, and of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice) that examined the underlying reasons for the differences in exercise levels in women, and found that women with higher BMIs were more likely to point to physical concerns like their weight or injury to explain their absence from the gym or team sports.

Read article – Quotes Ellen Meara, professor of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, about how the long decline in Americans’ death rates has reversed course, according to preliminary 2015 numbers for all causes of mortality as compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “When we’re spending $3 trillion in health care, and we’re seeing mortality rise—even if this is only a momentary rise—we need to examine what we’re doing and how we’re doing it,” says Meara. “Clearly we’re doing something wrong.”

Read article – Joseph O’Donnell, professor of medicine and of psychiatry, and Geisel alum Tommy Clark (D’92, MED’01) were among several people recognized at the recent Vital Communities’ annual Heroes and Leaders celebration, which honors the people who make the Upper Valley a special place. A benefit for Leadership Upper Valley, the event was held May 19 at the Quechee Club.

Read article – A review of the book “Unraveled: Prescriptions to Repair a Broken Health Care System” by James Weinstein, CEO, Dartmouth-Hitchcock, professor of orthopaedics, community and family medicine, and the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, and William Weeks, professor of psychiatry, community and family medicine, and of the Dartmouth Institute.

Listen to story – As a guest on “The Exchange,” William Torrey, professor of psychiatry and of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, discusses how state leaders recently joined the medical and mental health community to launch “Change Direction NH,” part of a national initiative to raise awareness of mental health disorders and eliminate the stigma around these issues.