Informed Consent and Clinician Accountability: The Ethics of Report Cards on Surgeon Performance

Description

This timely book analyses and evaluates ethical and social implications of recent developments in reporting surgeon performance. It contains chapters by leading international specialists in philosophy, bioethics, epidemiology, medical administration, surgery, and law, demonstrating the diversity and complexity of debates about this topic, raising considerations of patient autonomy, accountability, justice, and the quality and safety of medical services. Performance information on individual cardiac surgeons has been publicly available in parts of the US for over a decade. Survival rates for individual cardiac surgeons in the UK have recently been released to the public. This trend is being driven by various factors, including concerns about accountability, patients' rights, quality and safety of medical care, and the need to avoid scandals in medical care. This trend is likely to extend to other countries, to other clinicians, and to professions beyond health care, making this text an essential addition to the literature available.

Dr Steve Clarke is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, Charles Stuart University, Australia, and a Research Fellow with the Programme on the Ethics of the New Biosciences, James Martin 21st Century School, University of Oxford. Dr Justin Oakley is Director of the Centre for Human Bioethics at Monash University, Victoria, Australia.

'...should be read by all patients and physicians. For any patient wanting to be truly informed about an operation they might undergo, the book explains the common information pitfalls found in physicians' report cards. Physicians, on the other hand, will want to read the book to understand one of the most significant socio-economic forces that will shape their careers during the next decade.' American Medical Association