AMA Journal of Ethics theme editor James Aluri, a third-year medical student at Johns Hopkins University, interviewed Dr. Autumn Fiester, PhD, about strategies for defusing “difficult” patient-clinician relationships.
The stigma associated with HIV has diminished with its spread among the heterosexual population and the development of effective treatments. This normalization may justify assuming a more traditional public health perspective about mandatory prenatal screening.
Although effective, opioid agonist therapy is associated with stigma and thus underutilized for treatment of opioid use disorder in incarcerated settings.
AMA J Ethics. 2017;19(9):922-930. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2017.19.9.stas1-1709.
Although sharing health records with psychiatric patients may cause harm, clinicians also must consider beneficence and autonomy in making this decision.
AMA J Ethics. 2017;19(3):253-259. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2017.19.3.ecas3-1703.
Gerald M. Oppenheimer, PhD, MPH and Ronald Bayer, PhD
The alarm generated by the AIDS epidemic left civil liberties proponents fearful that traditional public health responses might be imposed on newly susceptible or infected populations.
After the infant’s birth, the neonatologist’s first duty is to his or her patient—the newly born infant. If clinical circumstances are different than anticipated, the physician must first consider the best interests of the baby.