Military doctors reminded of wartime roles

Investigations uncover instances of false and faulty medical record keeping.

By Andis Robeznieks, AMNews staff. Sept. 27, 2004.

The role of the military physician in wartime has received much attention lately with an article in the Aug. 21 issue of The Lancet and a new online course posted by the World Medical Assn.

The course is intended to raise physicians' awareness about their role in identifying prisoner abuse and to assist doctors in dealing with human rights violations. It also helps nonmedical military personnel to learn what ethical lines physicians should not cross.

The course was unveiled Sept. 7. WMA President-elect and AMA past President Yank D. Coble Jr., MD, said it was developed by the Norwegian Medical Assn. over the course of almost two years, and the timing of its release was not tied to reports coming out of Iraq or Afghanistan.

"This is to help these physicians do the right thing," Dr. Coble said. "The Norwegians initiated the curriculum because they thought it was a useful thing to do.

"It's not targeted to any particular occurrences or events," he added. "It just gradually evolved but, because of things that are going on now, it's gotten more attention than it normally would have gotten."

The topics that are covered in the WMA online course include: international principles of medical ethics dealing with the humanitarian treatment of prisoners; recognizing the medical signs of torture or degrading treatment; the responsibilities of physicians to report abuses; and the dual loyalties that physicians have both to their country and to their profession.