Clinicians have an ethical obligation to promote health equity in their communities. This month, we discuss how clinicians worked to expose the water crisis in Flint, and explore ways that clinicians can combat systemic injustice and promote health equity.
Advertising a plastic surgery practice on social media can be ethically fraught, and deceptive online marketing techniques can lead to patients feeling betrayed.
AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(4):372-378. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2018.20.4.msoc2-1804.
AMA Journal of Ethics theme editor Terri Davis, a third-year MD student at West Virginia University School of Medicine, interviewed Ranit Mishori, MD, about how to respond to incidents of suspected human trafficking in health care settings.
Plastic surgeons’ use of patient images on social media should conform to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons’ advertising and image use guidelines.
AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(4):379-383. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2018.20.4.msoc3-1804.
Devan Stahl, PhD, MDiv and Christian J. Vercler, MD, MA
Social and cultural influences significantly contribute to our conceptions of healthy and pathological anatomy, and surgeons play critical roles in how these influences are expressed in clinical settings and social media.
AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(4):384-391. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2018.20.4.msoc4-1804.
The stigma associated with HIV has diminished with its spread among the heterosexual population and the development of effective treatments. This normalization may justify assuming a more traditional public health perspective about mandatory prenatal screening.
Gerald M. Oppenheimer, PhD, MPH and Ronald Bayer, PhD
The alarm generated by the AIDS epidemic left civil liberties proponents fearful that traditional public health responses might be imposed on newly susceptible or infected populations.