Autres nouvelles “Our Family Secrets” Exposed — The Ethics of Whistleblowing and Public Trust

This week the Annals of Internal Medicine published an article so controversial they felt the need to publish an accompanying editorial, explaining their decision to publish the anonymous article.

The article, “Our Family Secrets” describes two experiences where a health care provider has acted inappropriately while patients were under anesthesia. The editorial describes the acts with poignant alarm: “The first incident reeked of misogyny and disrespect—the second reeked of all that plus heavy overtones of sexual assault and racism.”

Few things are as disturbing as the knowledge that things like this happen, perhaps more than we’re comfortable admitting, even if this is an extreme example. Treating patients with respect is a core value of health care, but “although we wish it were otherwise, most physicians at some point find themselves in the midst of situations where a colleague acts in a manner that is disrespectful to a patient.”