{"title":"You should get that mole checked out: Ethical and legal considerations of the unsolicited clinical opinion.","authors":"Nikki R Adler, Patrick D Mahar, John W Kelly","doi":"","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Legal and ethical obligations do not always align when doctors become aware of a clinical situation involving a person with whom they have no pre existing therapeutic relationship. Noting a potentially malignant skin lesion, such as a melanoma on a person outside the clinical setting, provides a pertinent example.</p><p><strong>Objective: </strong>The aim of this article is to describe the legal, ethical and professional considerations surrounding proffering a dermatological opinion in the case of suspected melanoma outside the clinical setting.</p><p><strong>Discussion: </strong>The application of professional and ethical standards may require the doctor to act in some way to alert the person of their findings in a context whereby there is no defined positive duty to do so in Australian law. The degree to which the doctor is ethically obligated to provide an unsolicited dermatological opinion is affected by numerous and, oftentimes, competing factors.</p>","PeriodicalId":8653,"journal":{"name":"Australian family physician","volume":"46 12","pages":"949-951"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2017-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Australian family physician","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"Medicine","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: Legal and ethical obligations do not always align when doctors become aware of a clinical situation involving a person with whom they have no pre existing therapeutic relationship. Noting a potentially malignant skin lesion, such as a melanoma on a person outside the clinical setting, provides a pertinent example.
Objective: The aim of this article is to describe the legal, ethical and professional considerations surrounding proffering a dermatological opinion in the case of suspected melanoma outside the clinical setting.
Discussion: The application of professional and ethical standards may require the doctor to act in some way to alert the person of their findings in a context whereby there is no defined positive duty to do so in Australian law. The degree to which the doctor is ethically obligated to provide an unsolicited dermatological opinion is affected by numerous and, oftentimes, competing factors.
期刊介绍:
The Australian Journal of General Practice (AJGP) aims to provide relevant, evidence-based, clearly articulated information to Australian GPs to assist them in providing the highest quality patient care, applicable to the varied geographic and social contexts in which GPs work and to all GP roles as clinician, researcher, educator, practice team member and opinion leader. All articles are subject to a peer-review process before they are accepted for publication. The journal is indexed in MEDLINE, Index Medicus and Science Citation Index Expanded.