Violating Patient Confidentiality Is Sometimes Necessary
Patients trust that what they tell their doctors will remain confidential, but under certain specific circumstances, the doctors may be obligated to breach that trust.
Patients trust that what they tell their doctors will remain confidential, but under certain specific circumstances, the doctors may be obligated to breach that trust.
The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored how easy it is for disreputable and non-authoritative sources to spread wrong and possibly dangerous medical information.
When patients are able to articulate their beliefs, it can help them move from making what may have been an unconscious choice into a conscious one.
The American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology believe there is “no better time to review and take a fresh perspective on medical ethics and professionalism in the light of established norms and current stressors.”
For many health care professionals, successfully managing uncertainty means recognizing that surety is complicated and illusory and knowledge is iterative and provisional rather than definitive.
Whatever strategy you employ to encourage vaccinations, it is important to be respectful and empathize with your patient’s concerns and perspectives.
Meeting public demand for an urgently needed effective medication quickly and safely during a pandemic involves difficult tradeoffs.
Black patients were half as likely to receive remdesivir as White patients, according to researchers from the CCC19.
Putting information in the cloud can be a good move for a physician’s practice — but only if done well.
Physicians should frame treatment options by their “harms and benefits,” not by their “risks and benefits.”