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Welcome to the nexus of ethics, psychology, morality, technology, health care, and philosophy
Showing posts with label American Medical Association. Show all posts
Showing posts with label American Medical Association. Show all posts

Sunday, August 21, 2016

Professing the Values of Medicine The Modernized AMA Code of Medical Ethics

Brotherton S, Kao A, Crigger BJ.
JAMA. Published online July 14, 2016.
doi:10.1001/jama.2016.9752

The word profession is derived from the Latin word that means “to declare openly.” On June 13, 2016, the first comprehensive update of the AMA Code of Medical Ethics in more than 50 years was adopted at the annual meeting of the American Medical Association (AMA). By so doing, physician delegates attending the meeting, who represent every state and nearly every specialty, publicly professed to uphold the values that are the underpinning of the ethical practice of medicine in service to patients and the public.

The AMA Code was created in 1847 as a national code of ethics for physicians, the first of its kind for any profession anywhere in the world.1 Since its inception, the AMA Code has been a living document that has evolved and expanded as medicine and its social environment have changed. By the time the AMA Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs embarked on a systematic review of the AMA Code in 2008, it had come to encompass 220 separate opinions or ethics guidance for physicians on topics ranging from abortion to xenotransplantation. The AMA Code, over the years, became more fragmented and unwieldy. Opinions on individual topics were difficult to find; lacked a common narrative structure, which meant the underlying value motivating the guidance was not readily apparent; and were not always consistent in the guidance they offered or language they used.

The article is here.

Monday, July 20, 2015

Aging doctors prompt call for competency tests at AMA meeting

By Chicago Tribune Writers
Originally published June 8, 2015

Should old doctors be forced to retire?

That question is the focus of a new report by an American Medical Association council that says doctors themselves should help decide when one of their own needs to stop working.

Unlike U.S. pilots, military personnel and a few other professions where mistakes can be deadly, doctors have no mandatory retirement age. All doctors must meet state licensing requirements, and some hospitals require age-based screening. But there are no national mandates or guidelines on how to make sure older physicians can still do their jobs safely.

It's time to change that, the report suggests, noting that the number of U.S. physicians aged 65 and older has quadrupled since 1975 and now numbers 240,000 — one-fourth of all U.S. doctors — although not all still see patients.

The entire article is here.

Friday, July 3, 2015

AMA is finally taking a stand on quacks like Dr. Oz

By Julia Belluz
Vox.com
Originally posted June 13, 2015

Medical students and residents frustrated with bogus advice from doctors on TV have, for more than a year, been asking the American Medical Association to clamp down and "defend the integrity of the profession."

Now the AMA is finally taking a stand on quack MDs who spread pseudoscience in the media.

"This is a turning point where the AMA is willing to go out in public and actively defend the profession," Benjamin Mazer, a medical student at the University of Rochester who was involved in crafting the resolution, said. "This is one of the most proactive steps that the AMA has taken [on mass media issues]."

The entire story is here.

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Doctor, (don't) heal thyself: Self-prescribing declines

Reuters
Originally published February 29, 2012

Far fewer doctors-in-training are prescribing themselves medication than in the past, suggests a new study.

Less than one percent of residents surveyed said they wrote themselves a prescription for an allergy medication, antidepressant or another drug over the course of a year.

In a similar study from more than a decade ago, over half of all medical trainees reported self-prescribing, which many consider ethically questionable.

"I would say it looks like, taking (the findings) at face value, that young residents and physicians-in-training are following recommendations about ethical considerations about treating themselves, and that seems like a good thing," said Dr. Ajit Limaye, from the University of Washington in Seattle.

Still, Limaye -- who has studied physician self-prescribing but wasn't involved in the new study -- cautioned against drawing too much confidence from its results.

"The practice, anecdotally from my experience, is very common," he told Reuters Health.

While it's not illegal for doctors to self-prescribe most types of medication (with the exception of controlled substances), researchers as well as the American Medical Association generally consider it a bad idea.

For one, doctors aren't the most objective prescribers when they're treating themselves. Another concern is that residents and other doctors may self-prescribe using free samples from pharmaceutical companies, which could bias the drugs they recommend to patients in the future.

The entire story is here.