Physician gag rules in gun legislation prevent physicians from discussing health issues related to gun ownership with patients, especially parents of children.
Is a residents' field trip to a museum a condescending waste of time or an opportunity to reconnect with the meaning of their work and hone their observational skills?
Carolyn Gaebler and Lisa Soleymani Lehmann, MD, PhD, MSc
The occasional required ethics course is not conveying to medical students that training institutions take ethics and the humanities seriously and consider them central to doctoring.
Instead of succumbing to the urge to portray cultural differences as a dichotomy between clashing opposites, we should endeavor to note our common humanity, acknowledge the plurality of viewpoints within a given culture, and appreciate that cultures can evolve without being untrue to themselves.
Well designed and effectively implemented ACOs should help those who deliver primary care become trusted elicitors of informed patient preferences and knowledgeable coordinators of care.
When the tension between solidarity and individualism hardens into entrenched oppositional politics, attempts to widen health care coverage are stymied.