The Institute of Medicine's ground-breaking report on medical errors has helped to make patient safety a priority goal, but the findings of the report are often interpreted by the media.
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.
While physicians have a duty to treat even at the risk of their own personal safety, citizens also have minimal obligations to assist those protecting them during bioterrorism or natural disasters.
The New Model of Practice in Family Medicine has been designed to improve patient care and alleviate financial and administrative pressures on family physicians.
A residency program director supports a shortened 2-year family medicine residency program that emphasizes primary care in the ambulatory setting and also allows family physicians to receive additional postgraduate training in their specialty areas of interest.
Marguerite Duane, MD, MHA and Robert L. Phillips, Jr., MD, MSPH
Two physicians argue in favor of extending residency training for family medicine physicians to 4 years so they will be adequately prepared to participate in family medicine's new model of care.
Physicians can ethically withhold information in situations where full disclosure of a diagnosis or treatment would cause great psychological harm to the patient.