The CMA is revising its Code of Ethics in an attempt to update and improve the “fundamental ethical guidance” it provides to physicians. This “minor” revision, which is expected to take about 20 months, follows a 4-year “major” revision completed in 1996. The CMA code is the ethics bible for most of the country's major medical bodies, including colleges of physicians and surgeons. It generally undergoes a major revision every 30 years to bring it in line with scientific and other changes.
Dr. Eugene Bereza, chair of CMA's Committee on Ethics, says frequent updates are required “given the importance of the code to the medical profession, especially in a climate of threats to professionalism.”
He told CMAJ this update “is more likely to consist of some fine tuning, perhaps some formatting changes, and the addition of a few articles.” The update will consider issues such as disclosure of adverse events and respect for other health care providers.
“As long as the medical environment keep changing, we'll have to keep looking at revisions because the CMA is the [code's] guardian,” added Dr. John Williams, the director of ethics. The revised code will probably be sent to General Council for approval in August 2004. Suggestions for revisions can be emailed to ethics@cma.ca.
The first version of the CMA Code of Ethics was approved in 1868, a year after the organization was founded, and it has undergone 4 major revisions since then. — Patrick Sullivan, CMAJ