Trauma-informed care ensures ethical treatment for children experiencing physical or psychological distress associated with a medical event or procedure.
In cost-effectiveness research, the cost of a medical intervention is reported as a dollar amount per quality-adjusted life year gained—the quality of health and the length of time over which the health state exists.
As physicians we decide which tests or treatments go on the bill but have little idea how our decisions impact what patients pay. Now patients, payers, and policymakers are demanding that we consider the cost of our recommendations.
This process of developing EBM-based guidelines and applying them to clinical care highlights the tension between generating unbiased knowledge based on statistical aggregation and the application of this information to individual patients.
Physician partners in a clinical practice should consider the ethical implications of joining a hospital system-based ACO, including whether there will be pressure to consider the hospital system’s bottom line.