Medicine is a service industry, the product of which is health care, and its practitioners deserve remuneration. But to some, the notion of medicine as a road to personal wealth is an example of free-market economics gone awry.
AMA J Ethics. 2015;17(8):780-786. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2015.17.8.msoc1-1508.
Dr Morgan C. Shields joins Ethics Talk to discuss her article, coauthored with Zohra Kantawala and Dr Ramesh Raghavan: “Why Patient-Centered Built Environment Standards Matter More Than Numbers of Beds in Inpatient Psychiatry”
Quality improvement initiatives in clinical medicine are part research and part patient care and pose challenges to traditional forms of ethical oversight.
Industry sponsorship of continuing medical education is controversial. A standard to adhere to is that before accepting any industry-sponsored education or incentive, a physician should form an independent evaluation of the product.
Physicians can maintain a balance between professional and personal obligations by having a well-organized practice and honest communication with patients.