PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

Pamela Sankar

Publications and source records attributed to Pamela Sankar.

8 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2003

Patient perspectives of medical confidentiality: a review of the literature.

OBJECTIVE: To lay the groundwork for a better understanding of patient views on medical confidentiality. DESIGN: Studies were found by searching medline, bioethicsline, and selected bibliographies. Articles concerning physician perspectives or implications of legal and administrative regulations were excluded. Only peer-reviewed journal articles reporting original research on patients' confidentiality views and conduct were included. MAIN RESULTS: Many patients are unaware of or misunderstand their legal or ethical right to medical confidentiality protections, which leads them to both over- and underestimate confidentiality protections. The possibility that medical information might be revealed, intentionally or not, to acquaintances in a clinic or other social community troubles patients as much as information release to insurers or employers. A significant minority of patients distrust confidentiality protections, leading some to report that they delay or forgo medical care. If doubtful that confidentiality will be upheld, patients will act independently to protect information. CONCLUSIONS: Our review found a wider variety of understandings and beliefs about medical confidentiality among patients than are often indicated in the writings of practitioners or legal experts. As medical confidentiality regulations evolve, these differences need to be recognized and accounted for in interactions between practitioners and patients.

Awareness↗
PubMed2002

Obtaining informed consent for cancer pain research: do patients with advanced cancer and patients with chronic pain have different concerns?

To explore the factors that patients with malignant and nonmalignant pain consider when deciding whether to enroll in pain research studies, determine whether their views are different, and determine whether willingness to enroll in research is associated with pain severity, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 80 patients (cancer pain: n = 40; chronic nonmalignant pain: n = 40). The risks and potential benefits that were important to patients with cancer were the same as those that were important to patients with chronic pain. Willingness to enroll in research was associated with pain severity (Spearman rho = 0.33; P = 0.041) in patients with chronic pain, but not in patients with cancer pain. Patients with cancer pain do not have different concerns than chronic pain patients do. Although chronic pain patients' willingness to enroll in research was related to pain severity and a desire for better pain management, cancer patients' willingness to enroll was not.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

Genetic privacy.

During the past 10 years, the number of genetic tests performed more than tripled, and public concern about genetic privacy emerged. The majority of states and the U.S. government have passed regulations protecting genetic information. However, research has shown that concerns about genetic privacy are disproportionate to known instances of information misuse. Beliefs in genetic determinacy explain some of the heightened concern about genetic privacy. Discussion of the debate over genetic testing within families illustrates the most recent response to genetic privacy concerns.

Confidentiality↗