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A General Framework for Exploring Ethical and Legal Issues in Sports Medicine
Robert P Lennon1, Philip G Day2, Eric C Marfin1
1From Department of Family and Community Medicine, Penn State College of Medicine. Hershey, PA (RPL); Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, Worcester, (PGD); The Office of the Attorney General of Texas, Austin, TX (ECM); Departments of Family and Community Medicine & Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey (CAO); Departments of Family and Community Medicine & Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, PA (MLS).
Background:
Medicolegal dilemmas faced by Sports Medicine providers differ from those of other primary care physicians in type and frequency. Exotic, high-profile challenges are widely covered in the literature and offer guidance on how to navigate challenging situations. However, there is a gap in the literature on how to approach more mundane, but nevertheless common, medicolegal dilemmas.
Purpose:
The purpose of this article is to provide Sports Medicine providers simple tools for determining whether a course of action is legal or ethical and offer Sports Medicine educators a model for teaching these skills.
Methods:
We searched U.S. federal and state law using the LexisNexis® database for laws regulating Sports Medicine practice, and PubMed for articles related to physician approaches to Sports Medicine legal and ethical challenges. Searches started with the term sports medicine, and included winnowing terms of ethics, ethical practice, ethical guidelines, law, and legal guidelines. We used current ethical practice guidelines followed by the American Medical Association and described in detail by Beauchamp and Childress.
Results:
We offer a framework for how to approach legal challenges in Sports Medicine and apply it to four common scenarios that Sports Medicine physicians often face. We further suggest that the profession formally address this literature gap with a standardized curriculum in Sports Medicine law.
Conclusion:
A curriculum using this framework and clinical vignettes provides learners and practitioners with familiarity and confidence when legal and ethical challenges arise in Sports Medicine.
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