Christopher Madden, MD, Aaron D. Campbell, MD, MHS, and Jessica Pierce, PhD
The use of medication for the prevention and treatment of life-threatening altitude-related illness is very different, medically and morally, from the use of medication to enhance performance.
This month, AMA Journal of Ethics' theme editor, Nadi N. Kaonga, a medical student and predoctoral candidate at Tufts University in Boston, interviewed Gordon D. Schiff, MD, on reframing professional boundaries in the patient-physician relationship.
The high price of cancer drugs in the US relative to European countries with universal health care raises ethical issues of access, financial burden on patients, and unsustainability of the health care system.
AMA J Ethics. 2015;17(8):750-753. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2015.17.8.nlit1-1508.
The Orphan Drug Act of 1983 provides incentives to encourage the development of drugs for rare diseases, but available orphan drugs tend to be expensive and targeted to the more common of the rare diseases.
AMA J Ethics. 2015;17(8):776-779. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2015.17.8.pfor2-1508.
If a medical decision about high-value care involves a conflict between the principles of beneficence and justice, an explicit analysis of the individual case is necessary to ensure that the interests of both the patient and society are served.
AMA J Ethics. 2015;17(11):1022-1027. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2015.17.11.ecas1-1511.
A physician in a university student health center may feel a duty to intervene when he finds out from a patient that a student who is not a patient is diverting medication, but doing so would violate patient confidentiality.
Health information technology, like prior technological advances in medicine, can improve patient care and enhance the patient-physician relationship if used properly and thoughtfully.