Carrie A. Bohnert, MPA, Aaron W. Calhoun, MD, and Olivia F. Mittel, MD, MS
Research and training are needed so that physicians are able to identify human trafficking victims and refer them to appropriate trauma-informed treatment.
AMA J Ethics. 2017;19(1):35-42. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2017.19.1.ecas4-1701.
Allopathic clinicians should treat local health practitioners as equal partners in cross-cultural clinical practice and express respect for traditional therapies.
AMA J Ethics. 2016;18(7):691-697. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2016.18.7.ecas4-1607.
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.
The use of coded patient data for reimbursement purposes can tempt clinicians to exaggerate the severity of the patient's condition, skewing the accuracy of the data and interfering with clinical decision support and research.