Being close enough to patients to care is as critical as remaining distant enough from a pathogen to be safe. This strategy simultaneously frustrates and supports public trust.
AMA J Ethics. 2020;22(1):E22-27. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2020.22.
Physicians tend to rely on diagnostic criteria, including BMI, that can influence patients’ access to care, referrals, and insurance coverage for indicated interventions.
AMA J Ethics. 2023;25(7):E507-513. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2023.507.
Erica Chou, MD, Thomas Grawey, DO, and Jane B. Paige, PhD
Biases rooted in historically entrenched assumptions about medical supremacy are reified in popular cultural representations of health professionals and in students’ lived experiences.
AMA J Ethics. 2023;25(5):E338-343. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2023.338.
Climate is a primary determinant of whether a particular location has the environmental conditions suitable for the transmission of several vector-borne diseases, including dengue fever, St. Louis encephalitis, and West Nile virus.
Lydia Smeltz, Susan M. Havercamp, PhD, and Lisa Meeks, PhD, MA
Lack of disability-competent health care contributes to inequitable health outcomes for persons with disabilities, the largest minoritized population in the world.
AMA J Ethics. 2024;26(1):E54-61. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2024.54.
Gregory C. Gray, MD, MPH, Laura A. Pulscher, PhD, MSc, and Hisham O. Alsharif, MBBS
Since the 1990s, multiple infectious diseases have “spilled over” from nonhuman animals to infect humans and cause significant global morbidity and mortality.
AMA J Ethics. 2024;26(2):E122-131. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2024.122.
Joelle I. Rosser, MD, MS, Orion X. Lavery, Rebecca C. Christofferson, PhD, MApSt, Juma Nasoro, Francis M. Mutuku, PhD, and A. Desiree LaBeaud, MD, MS
Organizations’ architecture and communities’ waste stream designs situate how well industrial hygiene practices support or undermine individuals’ and communities’ pathogenic vulnerability.
AMA J Ethics. 2024;26(2):E132-141. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2024.132.
Nubia Chong, MD, Maria Mirabela Bodic, MD, Peter Steen, MD, Ludwing Salamanca, MD, PhD, and Stephanie LeMelle, MD, MS
Paternalistic language in patients’ health records is of specific ethical concern because it emphasizes clinicians’ power and patients’ vulnerabilities and can be demeaning and traumatizing.
AMA J Ethics. 2024;26(3):E225-231. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2024.225