MEDICO-LEGAL RAMIFICATIONS OF THE EVOLVING DOCTOR-PATIENT RELATIONSHIP

Abstract

This article reviews key aspects of the evolution of the doctorpatient relationship over the past quarter of a century. It identifies the role of doctors as interpreters of information in the Internet Age; doctors as enablers of informed consent; the new accessibility of doctors’ clinical records; doctors’ documentation in the electronic health records era and privacy and confidentiality issues; doctors’ liability in the context of wearable and implanted technologies; changing and diverse civil liability for doctors; doctors who sue their patients for defamation; service provision in the globalized environment of health tourism; impaired doctors; and doctors as deliverers of death. It argues..