David Alfandre, MD, MSPH

Surrogate decision makers for a patient are obligated to make health care decisions based on what the patient would have wanted if it is known.

Patients trust that what they tell their doctors will remain confidential, but under certain specific circumstances, the doctors may be obligated to breach that trust.

The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored how easy it is for disreputable and non-authoritative sources to spread wrong and possibly dangerous medical information.

Equality assures that everyone receives the same thing, but equity assures that everyone gets what they need.

For many health care professionals, successfully managing uncertainty means recognizing that surety is complicated and illusory and knowledge is iterative and provisional rather than definitive.

Whatever strategy you employ to encourage vaccinations, it is important to be respectful and empathize with your patient’s concerns and perspectives.

An appreciation of the virtues one wishes to embody can help to navigate the complex ethical dilemmas physicians may face during the COVID-19 crisis.

Meeting public demand for an urgently needed effective medication quickly and safely during a pandemic involves difficult tradeoffs.

Physicians should frame treatment options by their “harms and benefits,” not by their “risks and benefits.”

Physicians must be open about secondary interests such as financial gain that have the potential to bias their clinical judgment.