Should informed consent for cancer treatment include a discussion about hospital outcome disparities?
editorial · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 18942888.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1371/journal.pmed.0050214 and PMC identifier 2570421.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Several studies have found disparities in the outcome of medical procedures across different hospitals--better outcomes have been associated with higher procedure volume. An Institute of Medicine workshop found such a "volume-outcome relationship" for two types of cancer surgery: resection of the pancreas and esophagus (http://www.iom.edu/?id=31508). This debate examines whether physicians have an ethical obligation to inform patients of hospital outcome disparities for these cancers.
Medical subject headings
- Hospitals
- Informed Consent
- Neoplasms
- Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care