Poison pen letters, due process, and medical schools' policies toward anonymous correspondence that disparages medical school faculty.

PURPOSE: To learn more about the frequency of and response to poison pen letters (anonymous correspondence that disparages faculty members) in academic medicine. METHOD: The authors surveyed all 143 deans of medical schools that are members of the AAMC about their practices and policies regarding the handling of poison pen letters. RESULTS: Of the deans surveyed, 119 (83%) responded. Sixty-seven deans (56%) reported having received poison pen letters during their tenure. Of those, 16 (24%) reported that they had discarded the letters based solely on the anonymity of the authors. The remaining 51 deans (76%) reported that they had either sequestered, investigated, or placed the letters into the faculty members' files, or that they had based their decisions to discard the letters on factors other than the authors' anonymity. Only one dean reported having a written policy for handling such correspondence. CONCLUSION: This survey of AAMC schools indicates that poison pen letters are not uncommon. The authors recommend a policy by which anonymous letters that disparage current or prospective faculty members would be categorically discarded.

Bioethics in the medical subspecialty literature.

We have previously reported that a smaller percentage of the surgical literature than the medical literature is devoted to bioethics, and that this difference is statistically significant. In order to determine: 1) whether the medical subspecialty literature is more akin, in terms of its quantitative bioethics content, to the surgical or to the medical literature, and 2) whether differences exist between the "invasive" and the "noninvasive" medical subspecialties in terms of their quantitative bioethics content, we conducted a computerized search of the MEDLINE database. The journals searched were selected from the "Medicine", "Surgery", and "Cardiovascular System" sections of the "Brandon-Hill List", and the search was limited to the 1994 issues of these journals. From the 15 medical journals searched, 331 out of a total of 10,578 bibliographic records indexed dealt with bioethics, while from the 12 surgical journals searched only 14 out of a total of 3990 bibliographic records indexed dealt with bioethics. From the 26 medical subspecialty journals searched (14 "invasive" and 12 "noninvasive"), 38 (20 "invasive", 18 "noninvasive") out of a total of 12,733 bibliographic records indexed (5745 in the "invasive" literature, 6988 in the "non-invasive" literature) dealt with bioethics. We conclude that there is a statistically significant difference (p < 0.001) between the general medical literature and the medical subspecialty literature in terms of their quantitative bioethics content, that there is no such difference between the surgical literature and the medical subspecialty literature, and that no statistically significant difference exists between the "invasive" and the "noninvasive" medical subspecialties in terms of their quantitative bioethics content.

Mycopathology of cerebral mycosis.

Seven cases of cerebral mycosis have been studied with respect to the pattern of distribution of the various cerebral fungi and the spectrum of histopathological changes. It has been found that aspergillosis is the most prevalent pathogen in our region unlike in the western world where candidosis dominates the picture. The relevant literature is discussed.

Pathological analysis of intracranial tumors.

An analysis of 145 intracranial tumors observed in the Department of Pathology, Maulana Azad Medical College, and associated Irwin and G.B. Pant Hospitals was carried out. The relative frequency of the different tumors, their site, and the age and sex of the patients is reported, and compared with previous reports in the literature.

Leydig-cell tumour of the testis.

Leydig cell tumor of the testis is an uncommon occurrence. A case is reported here which had two interesting features. One was extensive calcification and the other an abundant lipid deposition within the tumour cells. The pathogenesis of calcification is discussed.