Physicians new to a case might object to an established care plan. Practice variation, clinical momentum, and how value is assigned by different parties to acute care and comfort measures can each contribute to conflict in these cases.

Physicians must express compassion when discussing risk and success rates of palliative surgery.

Physicians need to help surrogate decision makers to make treatment and end-of-life decisions for those with severe neurological damage by proving a realistic prognosis and maintain strong lines of communication.

Teaching physicians cultural competency concepts and skills that will help them overcome the challenge of caring for patients from many cultures and lead to improved patient-physician communication.

A medical student doing research in Pakistan relates her belief that it is the mission of medicine to preserve dignity in every human being.

Structural competency helps physicians address reproductive health disparities through recognizing social determinants of health and social advocacy.

When ventilator support is being withdrawn from a dying child, responsive titration of sedative medications by the ICU team can relieve suffering without anesthetizing the child completely or hastening death.

The pharmaceutical industry's influence on the process of defining illness can be positive, as when drug companies increase public awareness of disease and develop effective therapies, or negative, if it pushes the boundaries of illness too far in pursuit of profit.

This poster on a screening method for symptoms and their relation to population health won honorable mention in the 2017 Conley Art of Medicine Contest.

Moral distress can be reduced by approaching the patient-physician relationship with empathy and humility, which foster trust and good communication.