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.
Pathologists should work cooperatively with clinicians and provide guidance about appropriate testing to uphold the medical ethics principle of justice.
AMA J Ethics. 2016;18(8):793-799. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2016.18.8.ecas5-1608.
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.
This comic conveys the absurdity of overreliance on symptom measures and excessive testing in contemporary clinical decision making and health care practice.
AMA J Ethics. 2020;22(9):E816-817. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2020.816.
Dr Kimberly A. Singletary joins Ethics Talk to discuss her article, coauthored with Dr Marshall H. Chin: “What Should Antiracist Payment Reform Look Like?”
Clinicians can support shared decision making by assessing patients’ knowledge, eligibility for screening, and preferences for engagement—active, collaborative, or passive—in the decision making process.
AMA J Ethics. 2015;17(7):601-607. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2015.17.7.ecas1-1507.