Abstract

Medicolegal dilemmas faced by Sports Medicine providers differ from those of other primary care physicians in type and frequency. Exotic, high-profile challenges are widely covered in the literature and offer guidance on how to navigate challenging situations. However, there is a gap in the literature on how to approach more mundane, but nevertheless common, medicolegal dilemmas. The purpose of this article is to provide Sports Medicine providers simple tools for determining whether a course of action is legal or ethical and offer Sports Medicine educators a model for teaching these skills. We searched U.S. federal and state law using the LexisNexis® database for laws regulating Sports Medicine practice, and PubMed for articles related to physician approaches to Sports Medicine legal and ethical challenges. Searches started with the term sports medicine, and included winnowing terms of ethics, ethical practice, ethical guidelines, law, and legal guidelines. We used current ethical practice guidelines followed by the American Medical Association and described in detail by Beauchamp and Childress. We offer a framework for how to approach legal challenges in Sports Medicine and apply it to four common scenarios that Sports Medicine physicians often face. We further suggest that the profession formally address this literature gap with a standardized curriculum in Sports Medicine law. A curriculum using this framework and clinical vignettes provides learners and practitioners with familiarity and confidence when legal and ethical challenges arise in Sports Medicine.

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call

Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.