AMA Journal of Ethics^®

A history of device oversight by the US Food and Drug Administration traces regulatory changes in response to injuries caused by Dalkon Shield intrauterine devices.

Information different patients need or want about cybersecurity risk varies, so communicating clearly is always key.

Lack of ethical, legal, and clinical consensus about best practice sometimes combines with a poor clinical evidence base.

Once focused on hospital liability, risk managers now navigate a broader set of enterprise risk management responsibilities.

Framing risk management goals as patient centered and evidence based helps align them with goals of ethics.

Government can regulate false speech and professional speech, which bans “gag laws” and compelled speech about laws to restrict abortion, for example. How should health professions share regulatory responsibility with government to prevent true speech about health information from being stifled?

False health-related speech can cause harm, but it’s not restricted unless it’s obscene. Physicians are obliged not only to correct patients’ false beliefs, but to engage digital spaces in which false claims thrive.

An overview of Maine's pilot program to reduce the practice of defensive medicine in certain specialties by assuring legal protection for doctors who follow particular guidelines and discussion of why it was not used in malpractice litigation.

Medical tourism creates an ethical dilemma for domestic physicians who wish to provide continuity of care but avoid liability in a malpractice suit.

The separation of dental and medical care is a medical ethics issue because it negatively impacts vulnerable populations who lack access to dental care.