Assuming rigid control over patients’ health care and subjecting them to strict regimens without offering them a choice in the matter is frank paternalism. Moreover, proceeding with an invasive test without obtaining proper informed consent is malpractice.
Society values both the appropriate use of new technological and management innovations and the maintenance of a strong personal and therapeutic relationship between patients and physicians. The medical-home model may be able to accomplish both.
The question is whether the medi-spa is a consumer-driven, profit-motivated business that happens to fall under the purview of medical practice or a legitimate and integral part of the health care system? Does it fulfill consumers’ desires or relieve suffering and promote wellness?
Is our generation of physicians somehow “weaker” because we’d rather not spend our entire lives at the office? Physicians who trained and practiced under more grueling conditions wonder how we expect to be competent physicians if we don’t work at it?
Zareen Zaidi, MD, PhD, Daniele Ölveczky, MD, MS, Nicole A. Perez, PhD, Paolo C. Martin, PhD, Andres Fernandez, MD, MSEd, Philicia Duncan, MD, and Hannah L. Anderson, MBA
This article canvasses ways to help trainees cultivate discernment and action in response to inequity.
AMA J Ethics. 2024;26(1):E12-20. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2024.12.