How should physicians researching life-sustaining technologies consider their duties to enrolled subjects?

As larger organizations become more influential in the health care sector, the Code can help physicians navigate those organizations’ influence on their practices.

Upcoding and misrepresenting clinical information constitute fraud, cost a lot, and can result in patient harm and unnecessary procedures and prescriptions.

Even disclosed conflicts of interest can be dangerous in health care settings, but disclosure might not be the panacea many seem to take it to be.

Corporatization in health care has complicated clinicians’ and organizations’ efforts to balance interests of individual patients against an organization’s bottom line.

Key policy changes would better situate clinicians to prescribe care in ways that are ethical, safe, and effective.

Streamlining US health care business has raised unique privacy concerns. Bills and explanations of benefits contain protected health information that could be disclosed to someone other than the patient.

Conflicts of interest must be acknowledged with sincerity and earnestness and managed such that the conflict is eliminated or, at least, credibly mitigated.

Having implied that a particular clinical decision had been made to “free up a hospital bed,” the attending physician walked away without further comments to the residents or talking with the patient.