AMA Journal of Ethics editor Audiey Kao, MD, PhD, interviewed Richard Pan, MD, MPH, about how, as a physician and legislator, he seeks to protect public health in light of recurrent outbreaks of vaccine-preventable infectious diseases.
An interview with Allan Ramsay, one of the five appointed members of the Green Mountain Care Board, which oversees the development of Vermont’s single-payer health care system.
Physicians have the same political rights as every U.S. citizen, but they must balance these freedoms with their ethical responsibilities to patients, not exploit respect for the profession to advocate for causes unrelated to medicine.
Physicians may involve themselves in political advocacy as long as it does not damage patient relationships or erode access to health care. They may, in fact, have an obligation to do so.
A physician member of Congress gives a first-hand account of how she has balanced medicine and politics and how she views her responsibility to the patients of America.
A physician advocate who has taken public advocacy stances against the federal government while employed by the government talks about the conflicts that arise between medicine and politics.
A physician argues that every clinician should expand themselves beyond individual patient care and on some level adopt a public role within their community.