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The nation’s largest doctors group Tuesday released a comprehensive plan aimed at dismantling structural racism inside its own ranks and within the U.S. medical establishment. The American Medical Association’s plan has been in the works for more than a year. The group’s leaders said health inequities highlighted by the pandemic, ongoing police brutality and recent race-based crimes have given the effort a sense of urgency. (Tanner, 5/11)

Saying it needs to “pivot from ambivalence to urgent action” and hold itself accountable for deeply embedded health inequities, the American Medical Association has vowed in a new strategic plan to use its influence as one of the world’s most powerful medical organizations to fight and dismantle white supremacy and racism in the U.S. health care system — and within its own walls. The 83-page report on racial justice and health equity, which is the culmination of two years of work and was scheduled to be released on Wednesday, was obtained by STAT and has now been released by the AMA. (McFarling, 5/11)

Maine has decided to hand its “School Nurse of the Year” award to all the school nurses in the state. Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, and the Maine Department of Education said Wednesday they and the Maine Association of School Nurses are recognizing all school nurses as the “School Nurse of the Year” for the 2020-21 school year. Mills said school nurses “have helped adapt with grace and grit to protect the health of our children.” (5/12)

The COVID-19 pandemic has showcased the heroic sacrifices and day-to-day service of nurses in an unprecedented way.With their tireless work in mind, the Georgia Nurses Association (GNA) is planning to launch a Nurses Hall of Fame this fall, with about 10 inaugural members inducted. (Kanne and Miller, 5/11)

The U.S. government scientist who helped design one of the first COVID-19 vaccines and then tackled skepticism of the shots in communities of color is moving to Harvard in June. Kizzmekia Corbett of the National Institutes of Health will take her research into next-generation vaccines for coronaviruses to the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the school announced Tuesday. (Neergaard, 5/11)

During the gloomiest stretches of the pandemic, Dr. Diona Krahn’s veterinary clinic has been a puppy fest, overrun with new four-legged patients. Typically, she’d get three or four new puppies a week, but between shelter adoptions and private purchases, the 2020 COVID-19 pet boom brought five to seven new clients a day to her practice in Raleigh, North Carolina. Many are first-time pet owners. Like many veterinarians across the country, she’s also been seeing more sick animals. (Kennedy, 5/12)

Most medical residents are interested in practicing for hospital systems in metro areas, which will exacerbate staffing shortages in rural communities, new survey data show. Nearly half of 103 final-year medical residents surveyed preferred to work for hospital systems, while only 10% wanted to partner with another physician, according to Merritt Hawkins' April poll. That marks a drastic shift from the staffing firm's 2011 survey, when almost an equal share of residents preferred hospital employment versus partnering with another physician. (Kacik, 5/11)

A longtime University of Michigan doctor, now dead, molested hundreds of patients, including many former athletes, and top university officials failed to act on warning signs and ignored complaints dating from 1975, according to a law firm’s report released by the university Tuesday. The 240-page report, produced by D.C. law firm WilmerHale, largely supports allegations made in lawsuits and news accounts over the past year against Robert Anderson, who worked for the university from 1966 to 2003 and died in 2008. (Hobson, 5/11)

A former nursing aide was sentenced Tuesday to seven consecutive life terms and an additional 20 years in federal prison after confessing to injecting lethal doses of insulin into frail, elderly veterans in her care at a West Virginia Veterans Affairs hospital. “You’re the monster that no one sees coming,” U.S. District Judge Thomas Kleeh told Reta Mays before announcing the sentence in a courtroom in Clarksburg, W.Va., dismissing her lawyers’ arguments that she deserved leniency because of a long history of medical and mental health issues stemming from her childhood and military service. (Rein, 5/11)