The guidelines for patients’ eligibility for bariatric surgery have not changed since 1991, although recent data suggest there may be indications for broadening application of the surgery.
Visual literacy modules can help trainees learn to integrate narrative and visual information in clinical encounters. The medical humanities curriculum at Australia’s Bond University uses art to build students’ diagnostic skills.
AMA J Ethics. 2016;18(8):843-854. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2016.18.8.imhl1-1608.
Nancy Berlinger, PhD and Annalise Berlinger, BSN, RN
Physicians’ reliance on “culture” to explain patients’ noncompliance may serve as code for their discomfort with difference, uncertainty, and distress.
AMA J Ethics. 2017;19(6):608-616. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2017.19.6.msoc1-1706.
The ideal grading system would measure student achievement of established learning objectives and, at the same time, encourage the development of desirable professional behaviors.
The rationale for policy intervention to reduce obesity rates appears compelling. Justification for intervening in the case of children is particularly strong, and precedent suggests that society will more readily accept appropriate restrictions to youth behavior.
For a medical school admissions committee to consider social networking activities during the selection process without informing candidates would violate the principles of transparency and consistency and could lead to worthy applications being rejected.
Without reflection and openness, physicians can be swept up into thinking that current disease categories and diagnoses arrived at through the differential diagnosis technique are certain and permanent.
Residents can be better prepared to treat patients who are obese by understanding that care as an expression of the core principles of professionalism: responsibility, self-regulation, patient-centered care, and teamwork.