AMA Journal of Ethics

What are key factors for successful partnerships between health care organizations and communities? We discuss strategies for building trust and engaging effectively.

How should AI be incorporated into medical education? We discuss how educators can adapt to rapid change in an ethically complex field.

Although undocumented immigrants contribute to the pool of available organs and to the US tax base, they are not eligible for organ transplantation in most US states.

Undocumented patients can be subject to discrimination, reporting, detention, or deportation in violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, so what goes in the record is critical.

Undocumented patients are a vulnerable population, since they often lack access to health insurance and can be afraid to present for care. This month on Ethics Talk, we discuss challenges in caring for undocumented patients with Dr. Mark Kuczewski, Scott Schweikart, and Dr. Nancy Berlinger.

Labels commonly used in clinical settings, like “elective” or “therapeutic,” influence how we think about the justifiability of abortion. We talk with Professor Katie Watson and Dr Maryl Sackeim about how the language clinicians use to describe abortion can affect patients’ experiences and even cause harm.

Trafficking-specific ICD-10-CM codes account for physical, social, and psychological dimensions of trafficked patients’ experiences. Data collected by clinicians can also motivate improvements in health policy, resource allocation, and prevention.

Physicians should be aware of the powerful impact celebrities’ cancer narratives can have on patients’ experiences of their illnesses and treatment decisions. Partnering with celebrities is one strategy for delivering evidence-based health information and messaging to the public.

Training should be implemented to respond to clinical staff members’ concerns about trans patients occupying sex-segregated spaces and to help mitigate anti-trans bias.

We live in a time when an array of information is available at the fingertips of anyone with access to a computer, but more information doesn’t necessarily mean more understanding. False beliefs about health care can be quickly and widely perpetuated online, with serious consequences. This month on Ethics Talk, we spoke with Dr. Jennifer McCormick, Dr. Albert Ko, and Dr. Diane Griffin about why it’s important for clinicians to respond to health care-related false beliefs and how they can do so effectively.