Bill frist medical license

Approved training generally includes attending accredited conferences or workshops and seminars. Doctors in Tennessee are required to retain proof that they participated in such programs in case the Board of Medical Examiners decides to audit them.

Doctors do not have to submit such evidence when they renew their license every two years. Frist is retiring from the Senate at the end of the year to consider a presidential run.

As a senator, Frist doesn't maintain a medical practice but routinely emphasizes his experience as a doctor. Frist recently took blood-pressure tests on Iowans during a visit to the state that holds the first presidential caucuses. He also keeps the letters "MD" next to his name on his Senate office door and has been known to keep a doctor's bag and lab coat on hand on the campaign trail or in his Capitol Hill office. Those sometimes come in handy.

Frist has aided accident victims and sick tourists; he has also has gone on medical missions to Africa. He was widely criticized last year for injecting himself into the debate over Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged Florida woman whose feeding tube was removed. Additional disciplinary action, such as suspending his medical license, is unlikely, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Health said Wednesday.

He also will have to make up the missed hours of continuing education within the next six months and do an extra 10 penalty hours within the year, she said. Frist remains committed to working diligently with the Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners to comply. In response to several inquiries from The Associated Press, however, the Tennessee Republican acknowledged Tuesday that he had not done all the work.

Gideon Jr. Turner said there is no rule preventing physicians from letting others sign license renewal applications.

Tennessee officials put the continuing medical education requirement in place in Doctors in Tennessee are required to retain proof that they participated in such programs in case the Board of Medical Examiners decides to audit them. Doctors do not have to submit such evidence when they renew their license every two years. Frist is retiring from the Senate at the end of the year to consider a presidential run. Frist recently took blood-pressure tests on Iowans during a visit to the state that holds the first presidential caucuses.

Those sometimes come in handy. First has aided accident victims and sick tourists and also has gone on medical missions to Africa.

He was widely criticized last year for injecting himself into the debate over Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged Florida woman whose feeding tube was removed.

Frist viewed a videotape of the woman, then publicly questioned the diagnosis of her doctors. An autopsy later confirmed their judgment, not his.