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Survey: Physicians not always honest with patients
Physicians don't always tell patients about their financial relationships with drug and medical device companies or their serious medical errors, a new survey has found.
Physicians are not always honest with patients about their financial relationships with drug and medical device companies or their serious medical errors, a new survey has found.
About one-third of doctors surveyed did not agree completely that they should disclose serious medical errors to patients, and nearly 40% did not agree completely that they should disclose their financial relationships with drug and device companies, according to the findings published in the February issue of the journal Health Affairs.
Lead author Lisa Iezzoni, MD, director of the Mongan Institute for Health Policy at Massachusetts General Hospital, says she conducted the survey to see whether physicians followed the standards of the American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation's Charter on Medical Professionalism. That 2002 document called on doctors to be open with patients and disclose mistakes.
