The guidelines for patients’ eligibility for bariatric surgery have not changed since 1991, although recent data suggest there may be indications for broadening application of the surgery.
Visual literacy modules can help trainees learn to integrate narrative and visual information in clinical encounters. The medical humanities curriculum at Australia’s Bond University uses art to build students’ diagnostic skills.
AMA J Ethics. 2016;18(8):843-854. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2016.18.8.imhl1-1608.
The ideal grading system would measure student achievement of established learning objectives and, at the same time, encourage the development of desirable professional behaviors.
The rationale for policy intervention to reduce obesity rates appears compelling. Justification for intervening in the case of children is particularly strong, and precedent suggests that society will more readily accept appropriate restrictions to youth behavior.
No matter where your medical career takes you, you will most likely encounter patients facing barriers to accessing health care. Everyone needs to prepare to care for underserved patients.
Erwin C. Wang, MHA, Megan Prior, Jenny M. Van Kirk, Stephen A. Sarmiento, Margaret M. Burke, MS, Christine Oh, MS, Eileen S. Moore, MD, and Stephen Ray Mitchell, MD
Policies and systems are slow to resolve structural disparities in access to insurance coverage and health care, but physicians can act now.
Medical educators can incorporate improvement science and patient safety training into existing curricula using a variety of methods and models, including the continuous longitudinal integrated clerkship model, in which students follow patients across time and care sites.
Readers, whether critics, the general public, or health care professionals, respond emotionally to physicians who reveal themselves literally and metaphorically in their writing.
Do some pernicious patient safety problems remain unresolved, even after systems changes, because health care professionals are not personally held accountable for their failure to meet standards?