Physicians tend to rely on diagnostic criteria, including BMI, that can influence patients’ access to care, referrals, and insurance coverage for indicated interventions.
AMA J Ethics. 2023;25(7):E507-513. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2023.507.
Erica Chou, MD, Thomas Grawey, DO, and Jane B. Paige, PhD
Biases rooted in historically entrenched assumptions about medical supremacy are reified in popular cultural representations of health professionals and in students’ lived experiences.
AMA J Ethics. 2023;25(5):E338-343. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2023.338.
Lydia Smeltz, Susan M. Havercamp, PhD, and Lisa Meeks, PhD, MA
Lack of disability-competent health care contributes to inequitable health outcomes for persons with disabilities, the largest minoritized population in the world.
AMA J Ethics. 2024;26(1):E54-61. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2024.54.
Nubia Chong, MD, Maria Mirabela Bodic, MD, Peter Steen, MD, Ludwing Salamanca, MD, PhD, and Stephanie LeMelle, MD, MS
Paternalistic language in patients’ health records is of specific ethical concern because it emphasizes clinicians’ power and patients’ vulnerabilities and can be demeaning and traumatizing.
AMA J Ethics. 2024;26(3):E225-231. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2024.225
Inpatient psychiatric units are designed around the twin aims of treatment and containment, but emotional norms and tone also contribute to care environments.
AMA J Ethics. 2024;26(3):E232-236. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2024.232.
Elizabeth Bromley, MD, PhD, Loretta Jones, MA, ThD, Marjorie S. Rosenthal, MD, MPH, Michele Heisler, MD, MPA, Julie A. Sochalski, PhD, RN, Deborah Koniak-Griffin, RNC, EdD, Cristina Punzalan, MPH, and Kenneth B. Wells, MD, MPH
The National Clinician Scholars Program, which will begin training physician and nursing scholars in partnership with local community-based agencies in 2016, aims to develop health care leaders who pursue community-centered goals and treat their community partners with equality and respect.
AMA J Ethics. 2015;17(12):1127-1135. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2015.17.12.medu1-1512.
The continuance of public and institutional support for medical research after the publicized deaths of human research participants in the 1950s contrasts sharply with the disciplining of institutions responsible for two such deaths in recent decades, which suggests that medical research participants are no longer receiving public recognition for their contributions to science.
AMA J Ethics. 2015;17(12):1166-1171. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2015.17.12.mhst1-1512.
Jayant Menon, MD, MEng and Daniel J. Riskin, MD, MBA
The authors describe a historical pattern in which a set of enabling technologies facilitates rapid advances in medical practice, resulting in recognition of new ethical challenges and a decades-long struggle to resolve them.