Is a residents' field trip to a museum a condescending waste of time or an opportunity to reconnect with the meaning of their work and hone their observational skills?
Carolyn Gaebler and Lisa Soleymani Lehmann, MD, PhD, MSc
The occasional required ethics course is not conveying to medical students that training institutions take ethics and the humanities seriously and consider them central to doctoring.
Instead of succumbing to the urge to portray cultural differences as a dichotomy between clashing opposites, we should endeavor to note our common humanity, acknowledge the plurality of viewpoints within a given culture, and appreciate that cultures can evolve without being untrue to themselves.
Well designed and effectively implemented ACOs should help those who deliver primary care become trusted elicitors of informed patient preferences and knowledgeable coordinators of care.
There is evidence that physicians' communication styles and ability to perceive others' emotional states correlate with better health outcomes and patient adherence.
Daphne C. Ferrer, MD and Peter M. Yellowlees, MBBS, MD
Telepsychiatry extends access to psychiatric treatment to those who might not otherwise get it, but licensure problems and the risk of boundary violations between patients and physicians need to be worked out.
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.
The ad hoc capacity granted underage patients to consent to certain medical services cannot be allowed to thwart the reason it is granted in the first place—to protect the health of minors.