Clinical equipoise—the idea that the community of medical experts is uncertain about the relative therapeutic merits of the arms of a clinical trial at its outset—mitigates physicians’ responsibility for patients’ poor outcomes when patients are assigned to the control arm or are harmed by an investigational agent.

Advice for enrolling patients in clinical trials.

The 2015 proposed changes to the Common Rule for human subjects research protections, which are a response to novel methods of data collection and analysis, clarify and broaden the scope of informed consent processes, identify exemptions, and make changes to Institutional Review Board requirements.

The continuance of public and institutional support for medical research after the publicized deaths of human research participants in the 1950s contrasts sharply with the disciplining of institutions responsible for two such deaths in recent decades, which suggests that medical research participants are no longer receiving public recognition for their contributions to science.

The AMA Code of Medical Ethics’ opinions on clinical investigation, subject selection for clinical trials, including members from vulnerable groups, and managing conflicts of interest in the conduct of clinical trials.

The National Clinician Scholars Program, which will begin training physician and nursing scholars in partnership with local community-based agencies in 2016, aims to develop health care leaders who pursue community-centered goals and treat their community partners with equality and respect.

Undue influence, which occurs when prospective research participants who otherwise would not enroll are induced to enter studies that might pose significant risks, may also involve social injustices such as unequal payment and participant selection methods that unequally distribute the potential harms and benefits of research.

Good clinicians understand why a patient is asking for a test or treatment, and their skillful counseling can often stem the tide of requests for marginally beneficial tests and procedures.

A new ethos for practicing medicine emphasizes reducing medical errors, minimizing waste, containing costs, and improving adherence to quality metrics.

The Sustainable Growth Rate was replaced in 2015 by the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act, which introduced fixed annual physician fee updates and a merit-based incentive payment system.