The Delaware Division of Public Health (DPH) is sending a health update to remind the health care community in Delaware to continue thinking, testing, and treating Tuberculosis (TB). This includes reporting all suspected and confirmed cases of TB disease to the Office of Infectious Disease Epidemiology (OIDE).

The incidence of TB disease in Delaware is declining. Quickly identifying suspected and confirmed cases of TB disease can stop the spread. Connecting people who have TB infection (TBI), also known as latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI), to treatment is the most effective way to prevent TB disease. Without treatment, 1 in 10 people with latent TB infection will get sick in the future. Read more for recommendations to consider when “thinking, testing, and treating TB.”

The MSD 2022 Virtual Interim Council Meeting will be held on Thursday, April 21, 2022, beginning at 6:00 p.m. All Council members are highly encouraged to register early to ensure receipt of meeting materials to review prior to the meeting. For more information and registration, visit the MSD website. Resolution submission deadline is April 1st.

March 31 is the deadline to report on Period 2 provider relief payments. Health care providers who received one or more General and/or Targeted Provider Relief Fund (PRF) payments exceeding $10,000, in the aggregate, from July 1, 2020, to December 31, 2020, must report to the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) by March 31 on their use of funds in Reporting Period 2 or face enforcement actions such as repayment or exclusion from receiving or retaining future PRF payments. The deadline to use these Period 2 funds was December 31, 2021. HRSA will seek repayment on all PRF payments received between April 10, 2020, to June 30, 2020, and not reported on during Reporting Period 1. For more on the reporting requirements, click here.

The American Medical Association (AMA) has released an updated version of the acclaimed Physician Guide for Keeping Your Practice Open. This resource builds on the AMA’s ongoing efforts to ensure physicians have the latest up-to-date information and resources necessary to address concerns about workforce protection and retention during the COVID-19 pandemic. Get in the know and ensure your practice remains compliant and successful during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. Download the newly revised Physician Guide for Keeping Your Practice Open today.

As part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP), Congress provided a temporary 10% increase in the federal medical assistance percentage (FMAP) on Medicaid Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS). In order to claim this temporary enhanced federal funding, states must develop a detailed spending plan for reinvesting these dollars to enhance, expand, or strengthen HCBS in a manner that is sustainable after this enhanced funding ends on March 31st. To support development of the Medicaid HCBS spending plan, the Delaware Division of Medicaid and Medical Assistance (DMMA) is hosting listening sessions to solicit feedback, particularly from behavioral health and substance use disorder providers, members, and their families. If you are interested in participating, please register in advance of the sessions and submit any written comments or questions to Medicaidinfo@delaware.gov. Read more for Listening Session information and registration links.

Biotechnology company Moderna last Thursday submitted a request to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for an amendment to the emergency use authorization (EUA) to allow for a fourth dose of its COVID-19 vaccine in adults 18 years of age and older who have received an initial booster of any of the authorized or approved COVID-19 vaccines. The request to include adults over 18 years of age was made to provide flexibility for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and health care professionals to determine the appropriate use of an additional booster dose, including those at higher risk of COVID-19 due to age or comorbidities. MSD reported last week that Pfizer and BioNTech also announced their application to the FDA for emergency use authorization of an additional booster dose for adults 65 years of age and older who have received an initial booster of any of the authorized or approved COVID-19 vaccines. Both Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna have said their requests to allow for a second booster shot are based in part on recently published data generated in the United States and Israel following the emergence of Omicron showing decreased vaccine efficacy. Moderna is still conducting clinical trials for an omicron-specific booster shot.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a letter to Health Care Personnel to provide recommendations, including conservation strategies, for prefilled 0.9% sodium chloride IV lock/ flush syringes. The FDA is aware the United States is experiencing interruptions in the supply of prefilled 0.9% sodium chloride (saline) intravenous (IV) lock/ flush syringes. Prefilled 0.9% sodium chloride IV lock/ flush syringes are in shortage because of an increase in demand during the COVID-19 public health emergency, as well as recent vendor supply chain challenges, including the permanent discontinuance of certain prefilled saline lock/ flush syringes.

The Physicians Foundation this week released part one of three of its 2022 Survey of America's Physicians, which examines the current impact of social drivers of health (SDOH) on physician practice, physician wellbeing and their patients, as well as possible solutions needed to address SDOH. The results indicate that 61% of physicians feel they have little or no time and ability to effectively address their patients' SDOH, although they believe addressing SDOH is critical to improving patient health outcomes and lowering the cost of care. It was also shown that 63% of those responding reported feelings of burnout when trying to address their patients' SDOH, and 68% believing that managing patients' SDOH has a major impact on physician mental health and wellbeing. In 2021, The Physicians Foundation submitted the first-ever SDOH measures to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which are currently under consideration to be included in federal payment programs. If adopted, these measures might potentially impact reimbursements for physicians, as well as address SDOH in how our country pays for and delivers care to improve patient health.”

The Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health (DSAMH) has formed an Opioid Response Team to provide strategic leadership and oversight to all opioid-related programs and activities throughout the Division, with a focus on the planning for and implementation of the State’s Opioid Response. DSAMH has awarded MSD with a grant to help Delaware reach important goals to provide higher levels of care and decrease opioid overdoses. MSD and its subsidiary, MedNet, will be working closely with an organization called the Recovery Platform to support this initiative. The grant allows MSD/MedNet to recruit up to five practices for a nine-month pilot program. If your practice has a willingness to promote screening tools to patients, treat or refer substance use or social has a willingness to promote screening tools to patients, treat or refer substance use or social needs patients, and desires to make strides in 2022 standards for collection of social determinant data, please complete the survey, which will only be used for our educational purposes and to help identify practices interested and that might benefit from this exciting project! For additional information, contact: Lori Ann Rhoads, CMPE, Director of Health System Innovation, Medical Society of Delaware, LoriAnn.Rhoads@medsocdel.org.

Delaware Today magazine is looking for nominations for Delaware Today's 2022 Top Doctors. Honorees will be announced in the October issue. As a Delaware-licensed physician, you have the privilege of nominating your colleagues. The ballot is divided into five categories. Access each ballot below. If you need assistance, please contact Delaware Today magazine by emailing abreeding@delawaretoday.com.

Oncology

Cardiology

Pediatrics

Other Specialties

MedWatch, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Safety Information and Adverse Event Reporting Program, indicated Kao USA is asking consumers to check their Jergens Ultra Healing Moisturizer 3 oz. and 10 oz. products to determine if it is part of a voluntary recall of the product. Select units of the moisturizer could show the presence of Pluralibacter gergoviae, a bacterium that typically poses little medical risk to healthy people. However, people who have certain health problems, such as weakened immune systems, may be more susceptible to infections. Consumers should discontinue use of the recalled lotion as a precautionary measure.

The American Medical Association's Political Action Committee (AMPAC) is the oldest non-union political action committee and leads the way on many political activities like strategic contributions to federal candidates, in-kind contributions, and independent expenditures. AMPAC needs the full support of all physicians. MSD is fortunate to have a direct connection with the AMPAC Board through MSD Past President, Janice Tildon-Burton, MD. Please consider your contribution to AMPAC today. Donations can be made online at: ampaconline.org.

My Green Doctor is a new, free money-saving membership benefit from the Medical Society of Delaware. My Green Doctor is about creating a sustainable environmental sustainability program for your office. One practice is saving more than $1,200 per doctor per year with no financial investment. Your office manager will add just five minutes of “My Green Doctor” to each regular office meeting agenda. Everything is scripted in My Green Doctor’s “Meeting-by-Meeting Guide” so there’s nothing to study in advance. With each meeting, you’ll make small changes that over time mean big improvements in your uses of energy, water, chemicals, paper, foods, and other supplies.

Your staff and patients will benefit from My Green Doctor’s library of educational brochures. This is how we can help prepare our patients for the health effects of climate change. Your entire practice and you can use the MSD discount code MGDMSD when registering as Partner Society members, saving $60 instantly and making My Green Doctor free. Ask your colleagues and manager to register:  https://www.MyGreenDoctor.org/ or https://www.MyGreenDoctor.es/ (en espanol). Easy!

If you are a partner society member and interested in coaching from My Green Doctor volunteers, please contact Todd Sack, MD, FACP, Executive Director of the My Green Doctor Foundation (tsack8@gmail.com or 904/403-6446).

Bayhealth Hospital invites health care professionals to attend their Medical Grand Rounds. This regularly scheduled series takes place every fourth Tuesday from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. at Bayhealth Medical Center in Dover. You can also join via zoom. Registration is required. Upcoming dates for meetings are April 5, and May 3, 2022. To join the Zoom by meeting number use Access Code 2435 528 4699 and Password Bayhealth.

COVID-19 has put extraordinary stress on health care workers. Clinician well-being has never been more important. Join the American Medical Association (AMA) at 1:00 ET on April 19 to learn about insights from the 2022 national burnout benchmarking report. Highlights will include current trends in burnout, stress, and job satisfaction in addition to other key drivers of burnout that have emerged during the pandemic. The AMA will also share key strategies to address ongoing burnout and how health systems can reset as we emerge from the pandemic. https://bit.ly/STEPSW-041922

The AMA and the American College of Emergency Physicians will co-host an interactive session, “Clinical Case Study: Telehealth for Emergency Medicine,” on April 20 at 11:00 a.m. ET that will provide participants with an overview of innovative ways that telehealth is currently being used in emergency medicine. Register: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEqce6upzIjEtOxhhHSxJ0_QHYz8tG4zvaA

Network with fellow MSD members and learn about what some of the MSD committees are doing for you and the community! Committees highlighted at this event will include: Editorial Board, Environmental Health Subcommittee, and Prison Health Care Subcommittee. Join us Monday, April 25th at 6:00 p.m. Zoom meeting details will be shared 24 hours in advance of the meeting with all registrants. To register, click here.

Night at the Blue Rocks at Frawley Stadium in Wilmington is an exclusive event for MSD early career physician members. The Wilmington Blue Rocks will take on the Bowling Green Hot Rods on Friday, May 6, with game time starting at 6:35 p.m. As a member of the MSD Young Physicians Section, enjoy a night of minor league baseball and fireworks show following the game. Tickets are free for you and one guest, with the option to purchase additional tickets. Physician members of the MSD Young Physicians Section are those who are age 45 or younger or have been in practice fewer than five years after completing training. The 2022 MSD membership renewal must be up-to-date to register. Ticket purchase deadline is Friday, April 22nd.

A weekend open house saw nearly 500 community members tour the operating and patient rooms of the new Specialty Surgical Hospital on the Rehoboth Health Campus. The Surgical Hospital will open in May and has the latest technologies to streamline operative care for patients with a wide range of medical needs. A ribbon cutting ceremony is being planned closer to the date of the hospital's opening.

ChristianaCare President and CEO Janice E. Nevin, M.D., MPH, has been named one of Modern Healthcare’s Top 25 Women in Healthcare for 2022. This is the second time Dr. Nevin has received this distinction. Modern Healthcare chose its awardees – female executives from different sectors of the health care industry – who are guiding health care improvement by influencing policy and care delivery models across the country. Read more.

ChristianaCare announced that a new study from scientists at ChristianaCare’s Gene Editing Institute is advancing the safety and efficacy of using CRISPR gene editing in patient treatments by demonstrating how to identify and evaluate the broad-based biological impact of gene editing on targeted tissues, where the edits are designed to fully disable or “knock out” a specific sequence of genetic code. The work, published Tuesday in the Nature journal Gene Therapy, supports the Institute’s efforts to improve lung cancer treatments by using CRISPR to disable or alter a master regulator gene to prevent it from producing a protein that blunts the impact of chemotherapy.

ChristianaCare's Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU) is the first unit in history to renew a Beacon Award for Excellence from the American Association of Critical Care Nurses (AACN) for the fifth-consecutive three-year cycle.

Delaware Hospice, Inc. and Saint Francis Hospital of Trinity Health Mid-Atlantic are proud to announce the expansion of its partnership to include an 8-bed inpatient hospice unit at Saint Francis Hospital, located in Wilmington. Opening in early October 2022, this dedicated, inpatient hospice unit will allow Delaware Hospice to provide end-of-life care to Saint Francis and Delaware Hospice patients, and those eligible for this service in the community. Delaware Hospice will lease the unit on the 6^th floor of the hospital’s DuPont Building. Renovations will begin this spring. 

This week's spotlight is on Joyce F. Robert, MD, Family Medicine physician with Beebe Family Practice Long Neck in Millsboro, DE. Read more.

If you would like to be featured in the Member Spotlight section, please contact Michelle Seymour, Manager of Membership.

MSD's Membership Department is pleased to announce the newest members of the Medical Society of Delaware. Welcome to the third oldest medical society in the country! If you know someone interested in joining MSD, please contact Michelle Seymour at (302) 224-4905 or Michelle.Seymour@medsocdel.org with any questions. You could be eligible for a referral discount!