News & Notes

CDC Awards Funds to Strengthen Public Health Infrastructure and WorkforceOn September 25, 2024, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced more than $176 million in funding to support 48 public health partners to strengthen the public health system in the United States. This funding enables these partners to support state, local, and territorial health departments, tribal organizations, academic, and private sector partners to improve their ability to serve the public and positively impact health outcomes. Recipients span various sectors, public health specialties, and population groups, bringing diverse expertise needed across public health.“CDC's public health partners are critical to building trust with communities and providing the essential services and capacity needed to face health threats,” said CDC Director Mandy Cohen, MD, MPH. “This announcement demonstrates the agency's commitment to building the strong, resilient public health system the nation needs to protect health and save lives.”As part of the National Partners Cooperative Agreement, the recipient organizations will receive funding for the first year of a 5-year cycle. This funding will help partners increase the knowledge, skill, and ability of the public health workforce to deliver essential services, improve organizational and systems capacity and capability building to address health priorities, and advance the nation's public health infrastructure and performance.Further information is available at https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2024/p0925-cdc-phi-award.htmlNBME's New Fee Assistance ProgramNBME is committed to supporting learners with programs and resources that make the path to medical education more accessible and equitable. The organization is introducing a new Fee Assistance program for students with demonstrated financial need to use toward the registration cost of the United States Medical Licensing Examination® (USMLE®).To help administer this program, NBME is partnering with National Medical Fellowships (NMF), a national nonprofit that has nurtured generations of diverse medical practitioners by providing scholarships and professional training to advance equitable health care workforce development.As a part of NBME's Community Collaborations and Contributions effort to assist medical students on their path to licensure, this program will provide aid to approximately 1300 medical students to support their fees for USMLE Step 1 or Step 2 Clinical Knowledge (CK) examinations in 2024.NBME will continue to iterate and improve upon this program in future years as its process and impact are evaluated.Further information is available at https://www.nbme.org/news/nbmes-fee-assistance-program-usmle-supports-medical-students-financial-needPhysicians Disciplined for Unlawful Opioid DistributionA US federal court has prohibited two Dallas-area physicians from prescribing opioids and other controlled substances and imposed a total of $1.2 million in judgments against them in a case alleging the physicians violated the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), the US Justice Department announced on October 10, 2024.In a civil complaint filed in 2019 in the Northern District of Texas, it was alleged that Cesar B. Pena Rodriguez, MD, and Leovares A. Mendez, MD, violated the CSA by issuing prescriptions for opioids and other powerful drugs outside the usual course of professional practice and not for a legitimate medical purpose.The complaint alleged that the defendants issued thousands of prescriptions without apparent regard for patient harm, including prescriptions for a combination of an opioid, a short-acting benzodiazepine, and a muscle relaxer—a dangerous and frequently-abused drug cocktail known as the “trinity.” In an order filed October 8, 2024, the court imposed a $291,451 civil penalty judgment against Mendez in addition to a $914,021 civil penalty judgment against Pena Rodriguez entered earlier in 2024.Further information is available at https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/court-prohibits-two-texas-physicians-prescribing-opioids-and-imposes-12m-civil-penalties