John Meyer joins Ethics Talk to discuss how “human-centered” design can help remove barriers to care and forge solidarity between patients and clinicians, and multidisciplinary artist Eve Payor talks about her projects with the Atlantic Center for the Arts and how soundscape ecology can help us understand effective sound design in health care settings.
Although poor communication is the root cause of medical malpractice claims, in cases of medical error, apologies reduce litigation and benefit patients.
AMA J Ethics. 2017;19(3):289-295. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2017.19.3.hlaw1-1703.
This month, AMA Journal of Ethics theme editor Margaret Cocks, MD, PhD, a third-year resident at Johns Hopkins Hospital, interviewed Theonia Boyd, MD, about ethical issues pathologists face when conducting autopsies and obtaining specimens.
This case is challenging because it represents a potential error on the part of the radiologist who interpreted a previous film—not the doctor who is currently treating the patient. While standards are being developed to help doctors disclose their own errors, guidelines for discussing other doctors’ errors with patients are lacking.
The authors address the medical ethics question of whether autopsy is necessary from Cartesian and sociocultural perspectives and how to obtain consent.
AMA J Ethics. 2016;18(8):771-778. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2016.18.8.ecas2-1608.
The legal definition of a patient and the corresponding duties of the physician have been debated in state courts for over a century, and many aspects of the question are still unresolved.