Back to Chapter 1 Patient-Physician Relationships
Opinion 1.2.5

Sports Medicine

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Many professional and amateur athletic activities, including contact sports, can put participants at risk of injury. Physicians can provide valuable information to help sports participants, dancers, and others make informed decisions about whether to initiate or continue participating in such activities.

Physicians who serve in a medical capacity at athletic, sporting, or other physically demanding events should protect the health and safety of participants.

In this capacity, physicians should:

  1. Base their judgment about an individual’s participation solely on medical considerations.
  2. Not allow the desires of spectators, promoters of the event, or even the injured individual to govern a decision about whether to remove the participant from the event.
AMA Principles of Medical Ethics: I, VII
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Opinion 1.2.6

Work-Related & Independent Medical Examinations

Industry-employed physicians or independent medical examiners establish limited patient-physician relationships. Their relationships with patients are confined to the isolated examination; they do not monitor patients’ health over time, treat them, or carry out many other duties fulfilled by physicians in the traditional fiduciary role.
Opinion 3.2.3

Industry-Employed Physicians & Independent Medical Examiners

Physicians may obtain personal information about patients outside an ongoing patient-physician relationship. When conducting third-party assessments or treating work-related medical conditions, physicians have a responsibility to protect the confidentiality of patient information.