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Vol 14, No 5 (2019)
Cardiology and law
Published online: 2019-10-31

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How up-to-date does medical knowledge have to be?

Kamila Kocańda12
DOI: 10.5603/FC.2019.0106
Folia Cardiologica 2019;14(5):542-544.

Abstract

The Act regulating the medical and dental professions says that every physician is obliged to perform his or her profession in accordance with current medical knowledge, available methods and means of prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases, the principles of professional ethics and with due diligence. The doctors’ code of ethics states that the professional activities of a physician must be in accordance with his or her conscience and modern medical knowledge. It also guarantees each physician the right to choose those treatment methods which he considers to be the most effective, always within the context of activities that are actually necessary according to the current state of medical knowledge. The physician’s obligations are correlated with the patient’s rights, namely a power to obtain treatment which meets the requirements of current medical knowledge. The legislature deliberately has not created a legal, precise definition of current medical knowledge, because this allows a wider assessment of a physician’s performance in terms of compliance with its standards.

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