The AMA was founded in part to establish the first national code of medical ethics. Today the Code is widely recognized as authoritative ethics guidance for physicians through its Principles of Medical Ethics interpreted in Opinions of AMA’s Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs that address the evolving challenges of contemporary practice.
When physicians participate in developing and disseminating innovative practices, they act in accord with professional responsibilities to advance medical knowledge, improve quality of care, and promote the well-being of individual patients and the larger community.
Telehealth and telemedicine span a continuum of technologies; As in any mode of care, patients need to be able to trust that physicians will place patient welfare above other interests, provide competent care, provide the information patients need to make well-considered decisions about care, respect patient privacy and confidentiality, and take steps to ensure continuity of care.
Physicians have an ethical responsibility to learn from and contribute to the total store of scientific knowledge. When they engage in biomedical or health research, physicians have obligations as scientists, which include disseminating research findings.
Physicians who develop medical innovations may ethically patent their discoveries or products but should not allow patents to languish or use patents to limit the availability of medical innovations.
Physicians who care for patients with serious, life-threatening illness for whom standard therapies have failed, are unlikely to be effective, or do not exist, should familiarize themselves with access to investigational therapies through the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s “expanded access” program to be better able to engage in shared decision making with patients.
Gifts to physicians from industry create conditions that carry the risk of subtly biasing—or being perceived to bias—professional judgment in the care of patients. To preserve the trust that is fundamental to the patient-physician relationship and public confidence in the profession, physicians should decline any gifts for which reciprocity is expected or implied.
Because health care is a fundamental human good, society has an obligation to make access to an adequate level of care available to all its members, regardless of ability to pay.