Over the next five years, the shortage of doctors across all specialties will quadruple as 32 million Americans gain access to health insurance and millions more become eligible for Medicare, according to a report released today by the Association of American Medical Colleges. With residency-training positions frozen at 1996 levels, the doctor supply can’t grow, even as more students are accepted into medical schools, the association warned. Skeptics say that the shortage concerns are exaggerated, and that what’s needed is a more efficient health-care-delivery system that relies more on nonphysician providers like advanced-practice nurses.

A longtime Democratic U.S. congresswoman, Eddie Bernice Johnson, has admitted violating rules in awarding thousands of dollars in college scholarships to four relatives and two children of a top aide since 2005, The Dallas Morning News reports. The scholarship money is provided by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, which gives each member $10,000 a year to divvy up as he or she likes. However, scholarship rules disqualify relatives or people who don’t live or study in the member's district. The scholarships Ms. Johnson awarded violated both of those eligibility rules, according to Amy Goldson, the foundation’s general counsel. Ms. Johnson said that the violations were inadvertent and that she would take steps to "rectify the financial situation."

The long-anticipated opening of a new nursing-school building at the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science is clouded with uncertainty because of financial troubles that could put the entire university at risk, the Los Angeles Times reported today. Drew’s interim president, Keith Norris, said the university would have to use reserve funds to make loan payments on the $43-million building, which opened Friday. If the university defaults, its remaining assets, which serve as collateral, could be seized, he said. Drew's former president resigned last year in the midst of the university's continuing financial struggles.

Harvard Medical School has imposed new rules aimed at restricting faculty members' activities that could be viewed as marketing for drug companies and medical-device manufacturers, The Boston Globe reports. Under the new rules, which will be phased in after January 1 and follow other restrictions imposed earlier this year on top officials, the school's 11,000 faculty members will no longer be allowed to give promotional talks for such companies or accept personal gifts, travel, or meals. Faculty members will also face more restrictions on the money they can earn by consulting for or serving on the boards of health-care companies. "We're anxious to be viewed publicly as doing what's in the best interest of our patients," said Robert Mayer, co-chairman of the committee that came up with the new policy. The National Institutes of Health proposed new conflict-of-interest rules this year...

Harvard Law School officials announced this week that the school would offer $1-million in seed money each year to help graduating students pursue careers in public service. The announcement comes two months after the law school said it was discontinuing a free-tuition offer to third-year students who agreed to work in public-service jobs for five years after graduation. The new Public Service Venture Fund will support students who start their own ventures or work for existing nonprofit groups or government agencies in the United States and abroad. The law school will start by distributing $1-million a year and hopes to increase that amount in the future.

After considering mergers or partnerships with Rice University and Baylor University, the trustees of Baylor College of Medicine voted unanimously on Wednesday to keep the medical school independent, the Houston Chronicle reported. Merger talks with Rice broke down recently after Rice officials expressed concern over the potential risks of linking with the financially struggling medical college, and critics of a closer affiliation with Baylor University, a Baptist institution that separated from the medical school 40 years ago, worried about a potential clash of missions between a religious university and a science-based medical school. Medical-college officials said that they had a plan to help get the school back on track financially, and that they could do it alone.

Louisiana's medical schools won a big victory on Wednesday, when a federal arbitration panel ordered the Federal Emergency Management Agency to pay $475-million toward rebuilding Charity Hospital, the teaching hospital in New Orleans used by Louisiana State University and Tulane University, The Times-Picayune reported. The hospital was severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and the state has argued that it needed to be replaced, but the federal government has resisted, saying the damage was not as bad as the state claims. FEMA had offered to pay $150-million to repair the hospital, rather than replace it.

R. Bowen Loftin, interim leader of Texas A&M University at College Station, is the unanimous pick of the system's Board of Regents to become the flagship campus's president, the university announced today. Mr. Loftin, who was previously chief of the system's Galveston campus, will replace Elsa A. Murano, who resigned in June after a dispute with the system's chancellor, Michael D. McKinney. Mr. Loftin's appointment will become official after a 21-day waiting period.

Stanford University is expected to unveil plans today to develop new, bias-free programs of continuing medical education for doctors, The New York Times reports. The work is being made possible by a $3-million grant from the drug maker Pfizer. The university announced in 2008 that it would severely restrict industry support for medical education in order to avoid conflicts of interest. Adriane Fugh-Berman, a Georgetown University medical professor, called the announcement "self-satirizing." But Stanford's medical dean, Philip Pizzo, said he understood the skepticism about whether an industry-backed approach could be free of bias, but asserted that Pfizer would have no say in how the grant was used.

Baylor University administrators have told the institution's independent alumni association that it will not be allowed to participate in graduation ceremonies in December, the Waco Tribune reported today. Two weeks ago, the university withdrew an offer to merge with the group, saying that the association's failure to respond to the proposal constituted a rejection. Association officials said they just needed more time to consider it. The alumni group, which has longstanding disagreements with the university over a number of issues, has traditionally presented alumni awards and given a short speech during graduation. Instead, its leaders say, it will hold a separate awards ceremony on the same day this year.