Since shortly after the technology was first invented, physicians have been using telecommunications to facilitate the practice of medicine. Physicians in the Netherlands were able to transmit heart rhythms by telephone in the early 1900’s; by the 1940’s telephone lines were used to transmit radiographic images. There were even early predictions of videoconferencing in medicine; the cover art on the April 1924 issue of Radio News depicted a future “Radio Doctor” interacting with his patient from the comfort of the family living room, through a radio equipped with a live screen. In the 1960’s, NASA developed several methods of remote monitoring of biometric information as part...
Unanticipated Medical Outcomes – Disclosure and Apology
It has been twenty years since the Institute of Medicine report To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System was released. Pioneers such as the University of Michigan, University of Illinois, the Veteran Affairs Medical Center in Lexington, KY, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) undertook the challenge to research and develop methods to communicate medical errors and other adverse outcomes to patients and families. Disclosure, apology, and potential resolution present particularly challenging topics in the setting of medical professional liability, where state and federal laws and regulations can impact the scope of communication and the...
A Modern Epidemic Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) affects an estimated 320 million individuals worldwide (16 million in the U.S. alone), and the incidence of this condition has increased substantially in the last decade. Further challenging psychiatrists, current pharmacologic therapies (MAO inhibitors, tricyclic antidepressants, and SSRIs) are limited by therapeutic lag times of up to weeks or months, and high refractory rates of approximately 30%. Patients with treatment-resistant depression face limited options, such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (r-TMS) or electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), and patients with suicidal ideation may remain at risk while they wait for a newly-prescribed antidepressant to take effect....
This supplement to our "Informed Consent Revisited" article contains excerpts from California laws related to informed consent, consent by minors and special consents. California physicians who have questions about a specific patient or who require legal advice may call MIEC’s Claims Department in Oakland at 800-227-4527. For general liability questions, physicians and their staff can call MIEC’s Patient Safety & Risk Management Department in Oakland, CA at 800-227-4527. Informed Consent In California, the current law on informed consent is derived largely from the case of Cobbs vs. Grant (1972) 8 Cal.3d 229 in which it was ruled that a physician...
This supplement to our "Informed Consent Revisited" article contains excerpts from Alaska laws related to informed consent, consent by minors and special consents. Alaska physicians who have questions about a specific patient or who require legal advice may call MIEC’s Claims Office in Anchorage, AK at 907-868-2500. For general liability questions, physicians and their staff can call MIEC’s Patient Safety & Risk Management (PSRM) Office in Anchorage, AK at 907-252-4015 or the PSRM Department in Oakland, CA at 800-227-4527. Informed Consent In Alaska, the law on informed consent is derived largely from common law and statutes. Court decisions modify and...