Analysis Of Brody's Transparency Model Of Informed Consent

Analysis of Brodys Transparency Model of Informed Consent In regards to informed consent the medical field still struggles with finding the best way to obtain it in an easy way for both the patient and the physician. There are four models of informed consent that Howard Brody discusses in his essay Transparency: Informed Consent in Primary Care. The four models are the community practice standard, the reasonable patient model, the conversation model, and Brody’s own model the transparency model. The community practice standard is a physician guiding their decisions by what other people in their field have done. Brody believes this model is flawed because physician paternalism would occur more often than not. He also addresses that this …show more content…
Brody believes that this model would not work because how law and medicine intertwine with one another. The physician would be more concerned with potentially being sued, so they would list off an endless list of risks and benefits in order to make sure the patient has no reason to file a law suit since they were already informed of the benefits and risks of the treatment. This would muddle the patients right to decide what treatment that works best for them because they will be overloaded with information that might not even be necessary because of the small likelihood of it actually occurring.
The Conversation Model is Brody’s favorite, and he takes some of the foundations of it to put in to his own model. This model has informed consent as a conversation between patient and physician. This would put the physician more at ease because the conversation would not be one way anymore and they could rely on their own knowledge to guide the situation. Brody’s one problem with this model is the legal aspects. He states that “A conversation in which one participates is by its nature a very different conversation described to an outsider” which will be a messy situation if a case ends up going to …show more content…
He does this by laying out a four part list on which way the physician should guide the decision making process. This list is sorted by routine low risk procedures, minimal risk procedures, procedures with large benefits but high chance of success, and procedures where the risks can outweigh the benefits. These rules lay out a solid foundation unlike the other models of consent where the physician’s responsibilities are questionable. He also states that this is done by the physician explaining their thoughts to the patient and welcoming questions. The physician is also required to figure out how much the patient wants to be a part of the decision making process about their health. He also believes that a conversation between the patient and physician the key component of the conversation model is beneficial in his transparency model. This makes it so the physician is open with the patient and a sense of trust is built. Even if there are possible risks with the treatment the patient will trust the physician enough to go through with it if the benefits are