-
Some commonly used diagnostic tests or treatments do not benefit patients, according to the ABIM Foundation's "Choosing Wisely" initiative. "This is not about 'rationing' care," says Christine K. Cassel, MD, president and CEO of the American Board of Internal Medicine and the ABIM Foundation.
-
When physicians were first using the Internet to do e-prescribing back in the 1990s, this led to the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) forming a committee to define a physician-patient relationship, recalls Humayun J. Chaudhry, DO, MS, FACP, FACOI, the FSMB's president and CEO.
-
One out of 10 physicians said they had told a patient something untrue in the previous year, according to a 2009 survey of 1,891 practicing physicians nationwide.1
-
Over half (55%) of physicians told a patient that his or her prognosis was more positive than the medical facts warranted within the previous year, according to a survey conducted in 2009 of almost 2,000 physicians in seven specialties.
-
Low-income patients are less likely to sue physicians than patients with higher incomes, according to an analysis of litigation rates and medical malpractice claims.
-
Careful stewardship of scarce resources remains an ethical obligation of physicians, but avoiding harm to patients is a higher priority, argues Howard Brody, MD, PhD, John P. McGovern Centennial Chair in Family Medicine and director of the Institute for the Medical Humanities at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.
-
If a genetic test reveals a patient is at high risk for cancer, the ordering physician may think it's important for this information to be shared with others in the family, but the patient may think otherwise.
-
Is a physician unable to exercise reasonable objectivity in providing care, or does the physician lack the requisite skill or training to help the patient?
-
There is nothing like a mandatory hospital evacuation to underscore the importance of including ethics in emergency preparedness, according to Kenneth W. Goodman, PhD, professor and director of the Bioethics Program at University of Miami (FL).
-
Almost half of family caregivers perform nursing and medical tasks for family members with chronic physical and cognitive conditions, often without any training, in large part because hospitals are discharging very sick patients more quickly, according to a September 2012 report released by the AARP Public Policy Institute and the United Hospital Fund.