Ethics Opinions

Questions about the propriety of physician participation in interrogations and in the development of interrogation strategies may be addressed by balancing obligations to individuals with obligations to protect third parties and the public. The further removed the physician is from direct involvement with a detainee, the more justifiable is a role serving the public interest. When physicians have reason to believe that interrogations are coercive, they must report their observations to the appropriate authorities.

Having contact with patients is essential for training medical students, and both patients and the public benefit from the integrated care that is provided by health care teams that include medical students. All physicians share an obligation to ensure that patients are aware that medical students may participate in their care and have the opportunity to decline care from students.

Residents and fellows have dual roles as trainees and caregivers; however, residents and fellows are physicians first and foremost and should always regard the interests of patients as paramount.

When physician health or wellness is compromised, so may be the safety and effectiveness of the medical care provided. To preserve the quality of their performance, physicians have a responsibility to maintain their health and wellness, broadly construed as preventing or treating acute or chronic diseases, including mental illness, disabilities, and occupational stress.

The obligation to address misconduct falls on both individual physicians and the profession as a whole. The goal of disciplinary review is both to protect patients and to help ensure that colleagues receive appropriate assistance from a physician health program or other service to enable them to practice safely and ethically. Disciplinary review must not be undertaken falsely or maliciously.

Physicians have a responsibility to address situations in which individual physicians behave disruptively, i.e., speak or act in ways that may negatively affect patient care, including conduct that interferes with the individual’s ability to work with other members of the health care team, or that of others to work with the physician.

Inequality of professional status in medicine among individuals based on gender can compromise patient care, undermine trust, and damage the working environment. Physician leaders in medical schools and medical institutions should advocate for increased leadership in medicine among individuals of underrepresented genders and equitable compensation for all physicians.

Physicians should prescribe drugs, devices, and other treatments based solely on medical considerations, patient need, and reasonable expectations of effectiveness for the particular patient.

Whatever roles physicians may play in the system of health care delivery, when they use the knowledge and values they gained through medical training and practice in roles that affect the care and well-being of individual patients or groups of patients, they are functioning within the sphere of their profession.

When physicians take on roles that require them to use their medical knowledge on behalf of third parties, physicians must uphold their core obligation to promote patients’ best interests.