Evidence map›Paper›PMID 30367013›Full record

ArticleJournal of medical ethics2019

Too much medicine: not enough trust?

Zoë Fritz, Richard Holton

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of medical ethics, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
17citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

17 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Review
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Overtreatment in elderly care: ethical considerations.Acta bio-medica : Atenei Parmensis · 2022
    Article
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Building trust in American hospital-community development projects: a scoping review.Journal of community hospital internal medicine perspectives · 2021
    Article
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Motivation for Healing in Cancer Patients: A Qualitative Study.Iranian journal of nursing and midwifery research
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Zoë FritzThe Healthcare Improvement Studies Institute (THIS Institute), University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.ORCID 0000-0001-9403-409X
Richard HoltonFaculty of Philosophy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.

Funding

Wellcome TrustWellcome Trust 208213/Z/17/ZWellcome Trust WT100577AIA
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

As many studies around the theme of 'too much medicine' attest, investigations are being ordered with increasing frequency; similarly the threshold for providing treatment has lowered. Our contention is that trust (or lack of it) is a significant factor in influencing this, and that understanding the relationship between trust and investigations and treatments will help clinicians and policymakers ensure ethical decisions are more consistently made. Drawing on the philosophical literature, we investigate the nature of trust in the patient-doctor relationship, arguing that at its core it involves a transfer of discretion. We show that there is substantial empirical support for the idea that more trust will reduce the problem of too much medicine. We then investigate ways in which trust can be built, concentrating on issues of questioning, of acknowledging uncertainty and of shouldering responsibility for it. We argue that offering investigations or treatments as a way of generating trust may itself be an untrustworthy way of proceeding, and that healthcare systems should provide the institutional support for facilitating continuity, questioning and the entrusting of uncertainty.

Indexed as

Physician-Patient RelationsTrustHumansMedical OveruseMedicineUnnecessary Proceduresallocation of healthcare resourcesautonomyclinical ethicsphilosophy of medicinetruth disclosure

Identifiers

PMID30367013
PMCPMC6327867

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.