Abstract
Prepare to cringe as you read this issue’s article entitled “Serious Ethical Violations in Medicine” by DuBois, Anderson, and colleagues. In their analysis of 280 physician misconduct cases between 2008 and 2016, they focused only on cases where behavior promoted patient harm: when physicians overprescribed opioids, performed unnecessary procedures, or engaged in inappropriate sexual acts. In this set, they found 95 physicians who sexually assaulted at least one patient: undeniably criminal behavior. The #MeToo movement has increasingly shed light on women’s lived experiences of assault, and it should come as no surprise that 100% of the cases DuBois and colleagues found were perpetrated by men, and greater than 85% of victims were women. Women already live in fear of men, which not inappropriately includes their male physicians. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality defines sexual assault in the health care space as a “never event,” an event that should never occur and is always preventable. Yet while sexual assault by physicians should never happen, it is nowhere near rare enough. The lack of clearly defined consequences for physicians who violate such obvious norms demonstrates a lack of sufficient safeguards to protect patients and maintain public trust.