Physicians have an ethical responsibility to be functionally literate in health statistics and able to explain information such as a test’s positive predictive value to their patients.
Medical stewardship is a way of describing a relatively new obligation to maximize health care resources. A professionwide conversation about its meaning and value is needed.
It is difficult to argue that consumers are maximizing their welfare by consuming trans fats, particularly because the production and taste costs of replacing them do not outweigh the health benefits.
Science attempts to explain how different types of personalities manage stress and what stress-management style might mean for the health of highly competitive people.
With good planning and good will, medical professionals’ right of conscience and patients’ rights to controversial services can be both protected and accommodated.
Teresa M. Waters, PhD and Peter P. Budetti, MD, JD
The National Practitioner Data Bank attempts to help maintain a level of quality and safety assurance by providing data on the clinical competence of physicians.