There are few situations in which the standard of care is so clear-cut as to preclude physician judgment. Assessing the degree of need (not just the standard of care) when asking a patient to spend money requires judgment.
Jonathan M. Metzl, MD, PhD and Dorothy E. Roberts, JD
The call for structural competency encourages medicine to broaden its approach to matters of race and culture so that it might better address both individual-level doctor and patient characteristics and institutional factors.
The words doctors write can have far-reaching consequences, particularly legal ones, for their patients. This article will help physicians understand the power of diagnosis in one area where their counsel is often sought—social security disability determination.
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.
Diagnosing a child with borderline signs of Asperger disorder can be a gateway to needed interventions and services and also a label that stigmatizes or influences the child’s development.
This month, Virtual Mentor spoke with Dr. Catherine Belling about the power of diagnosis and how it can change the way we view ourselves, others, and the world around us.
Raising occupational consciousness and critically questioning ahistorical and apolitical uses of "battle" is needed for responding to antimicrobial resistance.
AMA J Ethics. 2024;26(5):E390-398. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2024.390.
Alysse Gail Wurcel, MD, MS, Jacinda C. Abdul-Mutakabbir, PharmD, MPH, Shira Doron, MD, Christina Yen, MD, and Justin Berk, MD, MPH, MBA
Antimicrobial resistance is a global threat that inequitably affects minoritized populations, including Black, Latinx, and Indigenous people, especially in carceral settings.
AMA J Ethics. 2024;26(5):E399-407. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2024.399.