Medical Ethics and Emerging Media

Patients expect doctors to be trustworthy. They trust us with their lives, privacy, and information. When doctors use electronic medical records, EMR, the patients worry that they will be available to anyone who has a computer. The doctors and other healthcare providers must follow medical ethics. All doctors who belong to the AMA, American Medical Association must adhere to the “Principles of Medical Ethics” found at www.ama.org. Doctors must ensure privacy of EMR and only disclose what the patient requests.

 

Doctors share information ethically. When patients want a physicians or healthcare providers to share information, they must make the request in writing in which identifying information is given. It is unethical to share information without permission. The new HIPAA Laws, Heath Information Portability and Accountability Act, require patient permission to permit health information disclosure as explained in http://www.hhs.gov.ocr/hipaa.

 

Most physicians will discuss a patient’s health status if someone accompanies a patient to the office visit. That is implied consent. Many wives accompany husbands to the doctor’s office to help take care of the patient with medication and treatment instructions. HIPAA has guides to what a healthcare practitioner can ethically disclose. The HIPAA Privacy Rule is (PDF – 372KB). The United States Department of Health and Human Services provides educational materials to patients concerning privacy of medical records. A patient can download a file and conveniently carry it on a disc, www.b2b-exchange.com.

 

When patients have a complex medical history with diabetes, hypertension, or Atherosclerotic Heard Disease, ASHD, the patients can transport all of their records on discs. The physician who accepts these patients, will easily download the medical information. Since the patient has the disc, the patient is in control of health care information and who can read it, according to www.BuyerZone.com. The patient chooses who reads medical information. See podcast discussion with Mary Whitt, Senior Management Consultant. (Source: SoundPractice.net)

Emerging Media and Emergency Care

For 50 years Dr. Madden provided emergency care to the citizens of Wolf County. He practiced by himself, delivered babies, and applied casts. Though he took his own X-Rays, sometimes he needed an expert opinion. The patient and the X-Ray would travel by ambulance to another county, since there were no hospitals in rural Wolf County when a patient needed care he could not provide. An addition of a Web camera to his computer would connect him to the University of Kentucky, www.uky.edu and www.mc.uky.edu/medicine, for consultation. The patient profile and X-Rays can be viewed by a university expert, www.UK.edu electronically who can assist in a difficult case.

 

Kentucky and West Virginia have exciting wilderness areas. People from all over the country come to Mingo County to ride the Hatfield McCoy Trail on trail bikes and 4 wheelers. They ride rafts down the New River, ski at Snowshoe, and hike the Red River Gorge in Kentucky. Injured vacationers might stretch the local Emergency Medical service. They might seek information form Wilderness and travel Medicine, www.wilderness-medicine.com.

 

For those who do not carry pick and snowshoes up Denali or trek in Nepal, there are short films to view. The best of Telluride’s Mountainfilm Festival will inspire audiences with cross cultural experiences dedicated to inspire and educate audiences, www.mountainfilm.com. The Mountain Film on Tour captures the excitement of wilderness travel and medical hazards of extreme sports. 

 

Rural physicians, ski resorts, white water raft companies, and expeditions find injured travelers miles from help without the means of rescue. The American College of Emergency Physicians, www.acep.org, recommends Wilderness CPR and First Aid to team leaders. They offer Injury Prevention guides at www.emergencycareforyou.org.

Short films and Web sites will help train wilderness guides and help them with emergency care.                                                   

 

 

 

 

 

Web Sites and Infomercials Help Disabled

 

When patients have hearing defects, they benefit from assistive devices such as hearing aids and ear phones. These ads appear to be written and produced by healthcare providers instead of marketers. There must be a balance of information and marketing in these infomercials.

 

From Digital Hearing aids, the patients can order online and hear the difference provided by amplification. A visit to www.naturear.com, gives the visitor audio enhancement. The hearing aids are made to fit and now have a 2 for one sale. The Web site looks like a medical site instead of a product site. Form fitted hearing aids can be found at Hearpods, www.hearpods.com.

 

Visually handicapped people benefit from short films and audio commercials. These infomercials give information about sight aids and an opportunity to sell them. At www.1-glassesstore.com, the visually impaired can see how glasses enhance vision. Also doctors and dentists can purchase Stereoscopic 3-D glasses to distract patients as dental work and other procedures are performed on patients.

Women who have served as waitresses develop bunions and feet pain from years of standing on their feet. Nurses develop Achilles tendonitis from years of patient care and  walking on hard hospital floors. Proper foot care will provide less foot pain and increased comfort. FootSmart, www.footsmart.com, is a company that sells products to enhance lower body function and comfortable foot products. A visit to the Web site is informative. There are products to improve muscle tone, reduce strain, and enhance comfort. There is a balance of information and marketing.

Menopause disables many women. To treat newly menopausal women, a pharmaceutical company, Wyeth Labs, developed a Women’s Health Department that dealt with menopause. Their scientists produced estrogen replacement products in the form of Primpro and Premarin. At www.wyeth.com, patients can listen to testimonials and infomercials concerning women’s health products. They will have access to pharmacists and scientists through e-mail and FAQ’s.

Medicine and Ethical Disaster Management

The federal government spent billions of dollars preparing the country for terrorism and disasters. The Center for disease Control requested that physicians stockpile medications such as Cipro and other antibiotics. They trained ministers and social workers to provide disaster counseling and emergency workers to contain the situation. Healthcare workers want disaster training to become part of nursing and medical school curriculum. On the other hand, some see disaster courses as an unethical way to gain a profit.

The Emergency Medicine Learning and Resource Center at www.emlrc.com presents the 2009 International Disaster  Management Conference to be held February 19-22, 2009 at The Rosen Centre Hotel in Orlando, Florida, www.rosencentre.com. All people involved in emergency preparation, management, and response will benefit from this course. Doctors, nurses, EMS, and mass fatality responders will be “preparing freedom’s Lifeline,” by taking a course like this one.

 

After receiving a three year grant, The West Virginia  Department of Health and Human Resources, www.wvdhhr.org, trained community responders throughout the state. At locations such as The Earl Ray Tomblin Center in Logan it trained nurses, doctors, ministers, and social workers to teach the course, The Psychological Impact of Disaster and Terrorism. It was an outstanding course, and it offered continuing education credits that these professionals require for their licenses. Many took the course for the credits, and less than 10% taught the course after becoming certified as a Trained Community Responder, TCR.

 

Mental Health is affected by disasters such as Hurricanes Hugo, Andrew, and Rita, floods and fires. Ethical as well as unethical people arrive to provide services. All must be properly credentialed to provide counseling. There ar  e numerous disaster mental health Web sites to verify credentials such as www.aaets.org, American Academy of Experts in Traumatic stress, www.aamfi, Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, www.redcross.org, American Red Cross, www.fema.org, Federal Emergency Management Agency, and www.disasterpsych.org, Disaster Psychiatry Outreach.

 

Doctors, nurses, paramedics, and EMS train for disasters in Basic Disaster Life Support Classes. The first class in West Virginia was offered in Morgantown August 8-10, 2008. Emergency room physicians from West Virginia Hospitals and personnel from Pittsburg produced the course with hopes of WVU becoming a training site, www.wvu.edu. Trainers must be ethical, and courses must follow medical ethics.