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Contrasting Medical and Legal Standards of Evidence: A Precision Medicine Case Study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Gary E. Marchant ,
Kathryn Scheckel  and
Doug Campos-Outcalt
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Abstract

As the health care system transitions to a precision medicine approach that tailors clinical care to the genetic profile of the individual patient, there is a potential tension between the clinical uptake of new technologies by providers and the legal system's expectation of the standard of care in applying such technologies. We examine this tension by comparing the type of evidence that physicians and courts are likely to rely on in determining a duty to recommend pharmacogenetic testing of patients prescribed the oral anti-coagulant drug warfarin. There is a large body of inconsistent evidence and factors for and against such testing, but physicians and courts are likely to weigh this evidence differently. The potential implications for medical malpractice risk are evaluated and discussed.

Type
Independent Articles
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 44 , Issue 1: Part II: Harmonizing Privacy Laws to Enable International Biobank Research , Spring 2016 , pp. 194 - 204
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics 2016

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