Communication in caring for terminally ill patients.

Good care for dying patients has always been an obligation in medicine. To fulfill this obligation, physicians must embrace the integralness of dying in life, must recognize when to submit to death and dying with equanimity, and must develop attentive and individualized plans of care for each patient. Approaches to care should have, at their core, a reinvigorated commitment to communication between health professionals and patients and their intimates.

Direct-to-consumer drug marketing: public service or disservice?

Pharmaceutical industry spending on direct-to-consumer advertising has been increasing rapidly. While the primary goal of direct-to-consumer advertising is to sell drugs, supposed secondary goals include patient education and improved health. However, these benefits of direct-to-consumer advertising are unproved.

Reporting by physicians of impaired drivers and potentially impaired drivers. The Committee on Bioethical Issues of the Medical Society of the State of New York.

Physicians routinely care for patients whose ability to operate a motor vehicle is compromised by a physical or cognitive condition. Physician management of this health information has ethical and legal implications. These concerns have been insufficiently addressed by professional organizations and public agencies.

Disclosure and prevention of medical errors. Committee on Bioethical Issues of the Medical Society of the State of New York.

Medical errors occur and are sometimes unavoidable. Physicians generally, but not always, have ethical and moral obligations to disclose their errors to the patient. Because common medical errors can be expected, physicians are obligated to work within health systems toward reducing systems flaws that promote errors.