Full Disclosure: What Oncologists Must Tell Patients About Their Experience and Training

Abstract

Informed consent is an important part of delivering quality cancer care. Traditional ethical and legal rules require clinicians to disclose three types of information: (1) the patient’s diagnosis; (2) the nature of the proposed intervention and its intended benefits, risks, and adverse effects; and (3) medically reasonable alternatives and their benefits, risks, and adverse effects.

Recently, however, these traditional informed-consent rules have been expanding also to include non-medical information. Increasingly, clinicians must disclose personal information, such as their training and experience.

Note: Reprinted from The ASCO Post, with permission from Harborside. © 2019.

Keywords: informed consent, medical malpractice, shared decision making

JEL Classification: I18, K13