Dr Art Walaszek joins Ethics Talk to discuss his article, coauthored with Drs William Smith and David Elkin: “How to Draw on Narrative to Mitigate Ageism.”
The current Medicare operation—reimbursing medical goods and services to a growing number of people without basing the reimbursement benefit on the actual cost of the services—is unsustainable, but there are some possible remedies.
Physicians have an obligation to consider a patient’s quality of life when making treatment decisions and should consider giving patients the options of withholding or withdrawing aggressive treatment if that treatment will not restore the kind of life the patient finds meaningful.
The Moseley study found no significant difference between those in the arthroscopic lavage and debridement arm of the study and those in the sham surgery arm.
In treating sports injuries in athletes who may wish to return to play before fully recovering, physicians can simultaneously uphold the principles of respect for autonomy and beneficence by developing a return-to-play plan, which allows patients to take responsibility for meeting goals at each stage of their recovery.
AMA J Ethics. 2015;17(6):511-514. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2015.17.6.ecas3-1506.