Informed consent: physician inexperience is a material risk for patients.
This paper examines the case for an expanded interpretation of the concept of "material risk" such that it necessitates voluntary disclosure of physician inexperience with a specific medical procedure. Informed consent law in the United States, Canada, and most commonwealth jurisdictions has become a driver of standards of risk disclosure by physicians during the informed consent process. The legal standard of risk disclosure expected of a physician hinges on the interpretation of the entity called "material risk." Any impairment of the physician related to drug usage, disease, or alcohol which compounds the risk of a procedure is very likely to be considered material by a patient. This paper argues that physician inexperience is a factor that a reasonable patient would attach significance to and that it should therefore be viewed as a "material risk" requiring disclosure.
Veerapen
Richard J
RJ
University of Victoria, BC, Canada.
D002170:Canada; D002983:Clinical Competence; D030881:Disclosure / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D017007:Duty to Warn / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D006801:Humans; D007258:Informed Consent / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D010815:Physician Impairment; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D012306:Risk