A survey suggests that there is broad consensus among physicians about the importance of honesty with patients, but there is variation in physicians' behavior in disclosing certain information to patients.
Paul J. Christine, MPH and Lauris C. Kaldjian, MD, PhD
Shared decision making requires that physicians acknowledge their responsibility to the patient, their responsibility to be true to their own clinical judgment about the patient's best interest, their accountability to society, and the uncertainty of the evidence.
While next-generation genome sequencing can successfully guide cancer therapy, it can also reveal significant incidental findings that patients, families, and physicians may not be prepared to handle and may not want to know.
In the September 2014 issue on physicians as agents of social change, Dr. Audiey Kao, editor-in-chief of Virtual Mentor interviewed Dr. Rajiv Shah, administrator of the United States Agency for International Development or USAID.
Prognostication means informing patients what the outcome of their illnesses and treatments are expected to be, based on the best available evidence. Prognosticating in a way that helps patients in decision making about treatment is difficult for physicians to do.
Assigning community based on race suggests that phenotype reveals something consistent about biology that is equal in standing to factors like weight, dietary habits, smoking history, and whether or not you had rheumatic fever as a child.