President Message – Jay Mackman
Dear AAOP Membership,
I feel very proud and humbled to be elected President of this great academy. I have been lucky enough to have been part of the American Academy of Orofacial Pain since the early 1980s.
I was very fortunate to have known early on and studied under or beside, and been abundantly helped by many of our academies and fields great practitioners and teachers. Such as Bill Farrar, Harold Gelb, Parker Mahan, Bill Solberg, Glen Clark, Terry Tanaka, Bob Merrill, Henry Gremillion, Ron Auvenshine, Mariano Rocabado, Jim Fricton, Steven Graff-Radford and Jeff Okeson, to name just a few.
PEER REVIEW/ETHICS
A Referral Dilemma: Ethics vs. HIPAA
By Michael Maihofer, DDS With Permission from the MDA
Question: Okay, so here’s my dilemma. I’ve got this patient, real nice guy and longtime patient. At his most recent exam, I noticed a white spot on the floor of his mouth under his tongue. I went back in my notes from his last visit, six months ago, and noticed that I had given him a referral to an oral surgeon concerning this. When I asked him about it he replied that, yes, he remembers my recommendation, and in fact, has the referral slip tacked up on his bulletin board at work.
What You Need to Know about Antitrust Law
By Dan Schulte, JD MDA Legal Counsel;
Antitrust laws cannot be ignored by dentists on the basis that they are not fair, are too complicated, or make no sense. The U.S. Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission are particularly interested in prosecuting physicians and dentists for antitrust violations. Since dental organizations like the MDA are composed of independent practitioners, the activities of organized dentistry fall under federal scrutiny.
