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.
Given full information about the risks of long-term opioid therapy, patients often see the value of exploring other options rather than thinking their physicians are reluctant to prescribe narcotics for fear of litigation or regulatory action.
AMA J Ethics. 2015; 17(3):202-208. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2015.17.3.ecas1-1503.
To help a seriously ill young patient whose normal childhood has been disrupted, pediatricians must be more than sympathetic professionals in white coats—they must know how to motivate each patient and then go the extra mile to do so.
AMA J Ethics. 2015; 17(5):461-464. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2015.17.5.msoc1-1505.
My most important job is to help my patients (and their families) who are depressed, grieving, or angry following severe injury or illness to imagine possible narratives for the next chapter of life.
AMA J Ethics. 2015; 17(6):500-505. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2015.17.6.ecas1-1506.
An examination of some of the factors that can weaken the therapeutic nature of the patient-physician relationship and how a physician can resolve them in the patient's best interest.
When patients request drugs for nonmedical reasons, the most effective intervention may be to explore with the patient his or her reasons for using drugs to make lifestyle changes.
Neutral, nondirective counseling of women who are about to give birth to extremely premature infants can undermine their autonomous decision making rather than promoting it.