What we are expected to read between the lines or pick up on without being told is as much a part of culture as anything codified.

Patient-centered communication skills should be taught, practiced in simulation, and evaluated, just as technical skills are.

The legal challenge to the residency training system and the match by which medical school graduates are assigned to residency programs alleged that they impose anticompetitive restraints on medical residency placement, hiring, and salaries. The challenge was dismissed in federal court in 2004.

Although the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) covers parental leave within a year of the adoption or birth of a child, medical residents should be aware that leaves of absence require careful planning and may extend their training.

Although use of derogatory medical slang is disrespectful and unprofessional and therefore should be discouraged, looking at it more closely may afford an opportunity to address physicians’ frustrations or sense of helplessness in treating certain kinds of patients.

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) for enhancements of non-disease states is ethically indefensible given our incomplete knowledge of this technology. Attention should instead be focused on increasing access to DBS for patients with illnesses potentially treatable by the procedure.

The case of Johnson v Kokemoor illuminates the conflict between patients’ right to informed consent and clinicians’ need to learn through practice, a conflict that possibly could be resolved through greater transparency about clinicians’ experience or experience-dependent medical fees.

When deciding whether to offer deep brain stimulation earlier than usual for Parkinson disease, it is important to consider not only the patient’s autonomy but also the validity of the evidence and concepts of harm that are being used to form practice policies.

With the advancement of simulation technology and more accurate assessment of competency, simulators will prove beneficial for training neurosurgeons.

The pace at which neurotechnological developments are being translated into clinical applications calls for a preparatory neuroethical model that can plot the benefits, burdens, and risks of neurosurgery as a step toward minimizing risks and maximizing benefits.