What doctors and patients don't want to talk about

A recent article by Dr. Robert D. Truog, who is executive director of the Institute for Professionalism and Ethical Practice, describes the larger, and more complex, social forces that have affected the patient-doctor relationship over the last hundred years. Writing in The New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Truog eloquently explains that despite the apparent widespread embrace of honesty and openness, both doctors and patients have remained resistant to full transparency—especially when it comes to discussions about costs and the inevitable need to allocate limited healthcare resources.