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Biomedical subjects

M J Severin

Publications and source records attributed to M J Severin.

11 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1999

Genetic susceptibility for specific cancers. Medical liability of the clinician.

The use of genetic profiling techniques to detect individuals with an increased susceptibility to heritable cancers has provoked recent legal interest in the duties of the attending physician and in the rights of patients and their families. In the current study specific prima facie and recently litigated cases are presented and explored to delineate the issues facing physicians and to illustrate the prerogatives of patients who are caught up in a heritable cancer enigma. Various courts have attempted to answer questions involving lawsuits in which incidents of breast/ovarian carcinoma and colon carcinoma have provoked claims of negligence against health care providers. Health care workers involved in the care of these patients have specific duties to these individuals. It would appear that physicians are being forced to assume the additional duty of delving into a patient's family history of cancer through multiple generations. This duty is followed by a responsibility to provide detailed counseling to those patients in whom such activity impacts the diagnosis and management of familial cancer.

Breast Neoplasms↗
PubMed1996

Hereditary cancer litigation: a status report.

During the past few decades, cancer patients have sued their physicians for negligence in diagnosing or managing their disease, based on the charge that the clinician failed to consider the patient's genealogy when trying to arrive at a diagnosis. Other suits have charged that the clinician is liable for failing to investigate other members of the cancer patient's family, regardless of whether they were his or her patients. Although these cases have been successful only sporadically, they underscore the importance of obtaining a complete cancer history not only of the patient but also the immediate family. With the advent and more widespread use of gene analysis studies, more such cases are likely in the future.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

Insurance adjudication favoring prophylactic surgery in hereditary breast-ovarian cancer syndrome.

Insurance payment to cover costs of prophylactic surgery is occasionally denied to patients who may be at inordinately high risk for hereditary cancer. We describe a 43-year-old woman from a hereditary breast-ovarian cancer (HBOC) family which showed linkage to BRCA1 and who was at inordinately high risk for cancer but who was denied insurance coverage for prophylactic oophorectomy, despite strong recommendations by her gynecologist and a cancer geneticist-medical oncologist. The insurance company claimed that the surgery was not medically necessary because the woman's condition (hereditary cancer predisposition) was not an illness. A summary judgment issued by the Douglas County (Nebraska) District Court ruled in favor of the denial decision of Blue Cross/Blue Shield. But on appeal, the Nebraska Supreme Court offered the conclusion that the patient did in fact require this prophylactic surgery and overruled the District Court's decision for denial. The litigation provides the basis for this case report and may provide a precedent for insurance coverage for patients at high risk for hereditary forms of cancer.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome: more than a health-related dilemma.

Many legal issues will affect the health care worker during the AIDS pandemic. These issues are now beginning to be contested in our courts. It is certain that their numbers will continue to grow in the foreseeable future. As local, state, and federal governments design and implement new laws concerning PWA, mechanisms for surveillance, and control of AIDS, new issues are sure to arise. These will undoubtedly involve persons concerned with providing service to those afflicted with this illness. The direction of health care research has already been altered by AIDS. Societal relationships have been affected, as evidenced by the increasing number of legal charges filed when the question of HIV infection involves a patient, student, employee, or other citizen. Inevitably, the health care worker who has contact with PWA will be asked to participate in the mechanisms of the resulting legal contests. If the case reports cited above are an indication of the legal struggles ahead, appearance as a witness to provide scientific information as well as information about the care and treatment afforded PWA will be required of health care workers with increasing frequency.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗