Should Patients Order Their Own Genomic Testing?

Why patients should keep their own records.

Too many people now have access to confidential medical information. Patients are becoming justifiably wary and the doctor-patient relationship is deteriorating. We can avert the developing crisis by allowing patients to keep their own medical records at home. This will ensure that confidentiality is respected and that patients continue to trust their doctors.

Existential autonomy: why patients should make their own choices.

Savulescu has recently introduced the "rational non-interventional paternalist" model of the patient-doctor relationship. This paper addresses objections to such a model from the perspective of an anaesthetist. Patients need to make their own decisions if they are to be fully autonomous. Rational non-interventional paternalism undermines the importance of patient choice and so threatens autonom...

Should patients be allowed to look after their own medical records?

Patients predict their own outcome with CRT

as superior to the more simple methods for detecting non-responders [3], and a further search for better prognostic markers is needed. Versteeg et al. present the predictive value of pre-implant patient-reported health status on mortality using the Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire (KCCQ) in a single-centre cohort of patients receiving CRT [4]. This well-conducted study demonstrated that...

Should psychiatrists ‘Google’ their patients?

Since its beginnings in the 1980s the internet has come to shape our everyday lives, but doctors still seem rather afraid of it. This anxiety may be explained by the fact that researchers and regulatory bodies focus less on the way that the internet can be used to enhance clinical work and more on the potential and perceived risks that this technology poses in terms of boundary violations and a...