Complementary and Alternative Medicine Practitioners’ Standard of Care: Responsibilities to Patients and Parents abstract

In this article we explain (1) the standard of care that health care providersmustmeet and (2) how these principles apply to complementary and alternative medicine practitioners. The scenario describes a 14-year-old boy who is experiencing back pain and whose chiropractor performed spinal manipulation but did not recognize or take steps to rule out serious underlying disease—in this case, testicular cancer— either initially or when the patient’s condition continued to deteriorate despite treatment. We use chiropractic care for a patient with a sore back as an example, because back pain is such a common problem and chiropracty is a common treatment chosen by both adult and pediatric patients. The scenario illustrates the responsibilities that complementary and alternative medicine practitioners owe patients/parents, the potential for liability when deficient care harms patients, and the importance of ample formal pediatric training for practitioners who treat pediatric patients. Pediatrics 2011;128:S200–S205 AUTHORS: Joan Gilmour, LLB, JSD,a Christine Harrison, MA, PHD,b Leyla Asadi, MD,c Michael H. Cohen, JDA, MBA,d and Sunita Vohra, MD, MSce,f aOsgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; bDepartment of Bioethics, SickKids Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; cDepartments of Medicine and fPediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada; dFenton Nelson LLP, Los Angeles, California; and eCARE Program for Integrative Health & Healing, Stollery Children’s Hospital, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada