Amy Fairchild, PhD, MPH, Ronald Bayer, PhD, and James Colgrove, PhD, MPH
A brief history of public opposition to disease surveillance in the U.S., despite the documented success of this tool in recognizing and managing threats to public health.
A case that illustrates how Western medicine's body or mind approach to diagnosis and treatment can differ from that of many patients from non-Western cultures.
Physicians are held legally responsible if patients are harmed by not receiving the care that is required, even when the restriction of that care is imposed by a third-party payor.
Physicians should help patients resolve the issue of medical debt by advocating for change in the health care system on a local and national level and implementing charity care within their offices.
Physicians have a responsibility to practice palliative medicine so they can appropriately care for their dying patients and help them achieve their end-of-life goals.
Physicians who are interested providing care to uninsured patients can consider a number of options to balance his altruistic desires with his personal needs.
Although members of the medical profession are divided on the issue of physician-assisted suicide, they should continue to responsibly advance the discourse on end-of-life care through use of the media and the policies of physician membership organizations.