When patients are unable to express their wishes and do not have surrogates or advance directives, which and whose values should inform decision making for them? We discuss ethical complexities of caring for unrepresented patients.
Many pregnant undocumented immigrants are ineligible for public insurance covering prenatal care. National and state policies can either help or hinder patients’ access to health care that is universally recommended by professional guidelines.
AMA J Ethics. 2019;21(1):E93-99. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2019.93.
Peter Ellis, MD, MPH and Lydia S. Dugdale, MD, MAR
Presenting all, including expensive, options to all patients means advocating not only for individual patients, but also for a just health care system.
AMA J Ethics. 2019;21(1):E26-31. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2019.26.
Kelly Leonard, executive director of insights and applied improvisation at Second City Works, relates how improvisation can help clinicians build relationships with patients and improve their outcomes.
Mandating processes that are not evidence based generates distress among patients and clinicians, so physician advocacy in national, state, and local policymaking is key.
AMA J Ethics. 2020;22(8):E668-674. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2020.668.
Mary Perkinson, DMA, Vaishali Phatak, PhD, and Meghan K. Ramirez
There is evidence of the benefits of music for health and wellness, but current US clinical practice does not yet commonly incorporate arts-based interventions.
AMA J Ethics. 2022;24(7):E611-616. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2022.611.
Dr Vaishali Phatak joins Ethics Talk to discuss her article, coauthored with Dr Mary Perkinson and Meghan K. Ramirez: “Leveraging Cross-Campus Expertise to Contribute to Dementia Care Through Music.”