Because knowledge about the efficacy of long-term opioid use is lacking, decisions about opioid treatment for chronic nonmalignant pain should be guided by a six-step decision making process that is based in clinical ethics.
AMA J Ethics. 2015;17(6):521-529. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2015.17.6.nlit1-1506.
Arguments that mistrust about information security will deter patients from embracing telehealth care ignore patients' willingness to take on risk in the pursuit of health benefits and the role physicians will play in encouraging adoption.
Patients’ personal or cultural views toward illness, the business of health care under which we all operate, and our own personal opinions about the ideal of health and wellness can all compromise pain treatment. It is our responsibility to see that it does not.
The participatory decision-making model for patient-physician relationships is the best approach for addressing the individual family-related and social influences that stress that relationship.
A review of research that found that physicians disciplined by state medical boards were as much as three times more likely than controls to have had a record of unprofessional behavior in medical school.