News Briefs

2008: Year of renewal

Medical license renewal, that is. Don’t let the July 31, 2008, deadline sneak up on you. The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) requires 150 documented hours of CME credit, completed over the three-year cycle, for license renewal.

Credit hours must include 60 hours of formal, Category 1 CME credit. The original certificate of participation must be retained as proof of completion. The remaining 90 required hours may be informal, Category 2 CME credit, or a combination of formal and informal credit hours. Informal hours pertain to many self-directed activities such as peer review and journal reading. Physicians should document the type of learning activity, along with the date and time spent on the activity.

Remember: Documentation of your CME hours is critical to your license renewal. See more details on license renewal in the March issue of Mutual Interests and in ISMIE-news, or visit IDFPR’s web site at www.idfpr.com.

Fear of lawsuits provokes wacky warnings

Manufacturers are covering their bases by labeling their products with messages that border on the ridiculous, but are designed to deter frivolous lawsuits, according to Sick of Lawsuits, a web site dedicated to educating the public about lawsuit abuse. The site sponsored a contest inviting the Parent Bloggers Network to submit examples of wacky warning labels. The winning warning label (on a chainsaw) cautioned, Danger: Do not hold the wrong end of the chainsaw. Bases covered?!

Notes from a law lecture

"Never stir up litigation. A worse man can scarcely be found than one who does this. Who can be more nearly a fiend than he who habitually overhauls the register of deeds in search of defects in titles, whereon to stir up strife, and put money in his pocket?"

Abraham Lincoln, July 1, 1850