When confidential medical information can prevent a serious harm to a third party, the patient’s prima facie right to confidentiality must be balanced against the physician’s prima facie obligation to prevent serious harm to that third party.
AMA J Ethics. 2015;17(9):819-825. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2015.17.9.ecas1-1509.
Assuming rigid control over patients’ health care and subjecting them to strict regimens without offering them a choice in the matter is frank paternalism. Moreover, proceeding with an invasive test without obtaining proper informed consent is malpractice.
Society values both the appropriate use of new technological and management innovations and the maintenance of a strong personal and therapeutic relationship between patients and physicians. The medical-home model may be able to accomplish both.
Rebekah Davis Reed, PhD, JD and Erik L. Antonsen, PhD, MD
Though the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s collection of disaggregated genetic data for occupational surveillance and research raises numerous privacy concerns, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 allows genetic information to be used to develop personal pharmaceuticals.
AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(9):E849-856. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2018.849.
Leah M. Marcotte, MD, Jeffrey Krimmel-Morrison, MD, and Joshua M. Liao, MD, MSc
Individuals can underperform in circumstances of shared accountability. In clinical settings, this is an unintended consequence of the health care sector’s complexity fragmentation.
AMA J Ethics. 2020;22(9):E802-807. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2020.802.
Dr Jeff Sebo joins Ethics Talk to discuss his article, coauthored with Zoe Griffiths: "How Should We Improve How Medical and Veterinary Students Learn About Human and Nonhuman Animals?"