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Re: Informed Consent for prenatal ultrasoundFrom: Martin Necas (exiled@clear.net.nz)Fri May 14 21:39:49 1999
Dear Paula, Consent for OB scans seems a bit of overkill to me. It is widely accepted that ultrasound is an operator dependent technique and that occasionally our findings may contain a degree of inaccuracy. I do not think that it is necessary for patients to sign a legal document. So many things in medicine have a range of accuracy and error that you could stretch this argument and ask "if we have consent for OB scans, why not have consent for ALL types of scans (abdomen, pelvis, thyroid, etc...)". In fact, why not have a consent for all medical examinations- even a routine physical. And why not throw in consents and disclaimers related to limited hospital parking, no-go for late arrivals, slippery hospital floors, etc... Very few things in life are absolute, there is always a potential for mishap, misdiagnosis, accident, and so on. Is it really necessary to tell every patient whose anatomy scan appears perfectly normal that although the ultrasound is unremarkable, there is a wide variety of potential disease conditions which we are not be able to diagnose from the scan? If patients ask me whether "their baby is normal", I usually say that "everything we can evaluate on the ultrasound appears normal and I did not find any problems". That statement in my opinion is quite adequate, since it says that given our best diagnostic ability the ultrasound appears normal, but I am not actually making a comment about the normalcy of the pregnancy itself.
I agree with you wholeheartedly when you say:
>But whether we use informed consent or Having legal consents just seems more red tape. Yours,
-- Martin Necas
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