Because health systems with high-functioning primary care services have decreased mortality and improved health outcomes, the sector can be classified as a public good, like police and fire services and public education.
AMA J Ethics. 2015; 17(7):637-646. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2015.17.7.stas1-1507.
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.
Nubia Chong, MD, Maria Mirabela Bodic, MD, Peter Steen, MD, Ludwing Salamanca, MD, PhD, and Stephanie LeMelle, MD, MS
Paternalistic language in patients’ health records is of specific ethical concern because it emphasizes clinicians’ power and patients’ vulnerabilities and can be demeaning and traumatizing.
AMA J Ethics. 2024; 26(3):E225-231. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2024.225
Dr Peter Steen joins Ethics Talk to discuss his article, coauthored with Drs Nubia Chong, Maria Mirabela Bodic, Ludwing Salamanca, and Stephanie LeMelle: “What Should Students and Trainees Learn About Patient-Centered Documentation?”
Requirements for informed consent are relatively vague and the exceptions are few, so it is in the physician’s best interest to inform patients about proposed treatment options, ascertain that they understand their choices, and secure their consent.
Shivan J. Mehta, MD, MBA and David A. Asch, MD, MBA
Outcome-based payment more closely aligns payments with what patients want, which is better health rather than more health care. But these approaches remain challenging to implement.