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Journal of Law and Health

Journal

Standard of care

Publication Year

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Torts

Malpractice And Other Legal Issues Preventing The Development Of Telemedicine , Christopher Caryl Jan 1997

Malpractice And Other Legal Issues Preventing The Development Of Telemedicine , Christopher Caryl

Journal of Law and Health

Even though most Americans have not heard of telemedicine, the federal government is already actively involved in "developing a national telemedicine strategy." This note attempts to accomplish the following: demonstrate the urgent need of rural communities to gain access to adequate health care; clarify how telemedicine can provide enhanced health care to rural communities; and analyze the legal obstacles that have prevented, thus far, the most beneficial utilization of telemedicine. In particular, this note will examine how malpractice claims arising from telemedicine consultations might be resolved. An important issue to recognize at the outset, and one that consistently reappears throughout …


A New Predicament For Physicians: The Concept Of Medical Futility, The Physician's Obligation To Render Inappropriate Treatment, And The Interplay Of The Medical Standard Of Care, Eric M. Levine Jan 1994

A New Predicament For Physicians: The Concept Of Medical Futility, The Physician's Obligation To Render Inappropriate Treatment, And The Interplay Of The Medical Standard Of Care, Eric M. Levine

Journal of Law and Health

Part II of this article discusses the concept of futility and reviews various proposed approaches to defining "futility". This article then shows how personal value judgments play an integral part in determining futility under virtually all of these approaches. Part II concludes that a decision that treatment is futile should not be based on the individual values of only the patient or physician under the shared decisionmaking model of the physician-patient relationship. Part III tackles the issue whether a physician must offer or continue treatment deemed "medically and ethically inappropriate." Part III first reviews common law doctrines governing the physician-patient …