Beast, Dr. Mid-Nite, and the American Medical Association
scene from Young X-Men #11 (Guggenheim, Sandoval)
Does Henry have anything to worry about? Can he be kicked out of the American Medical Association for breaking doctor/patient confidentiality?
Yes, and no.
1. You can be expelled from the AMA for breaking its ethical rules, and these rules include patient confidentiality.
2. On the other hand, Henry can’t be kicked out of the AMA because he can’t be a member: he’s not a physician. Sure, he practices medicine for the X-Men, and he has at least one Ph.D., but he has never earned a medical degree, and thus he cannot be a part of the AMA.
While I’m talking about the AMA, there seems to be a misunderstanding among writers (both comic book and television) about what exactly the American Medical Association does.
It is a physician and public health advocacy organization whose mission is to “promote the art and science of medicine and the betterment of public health.” It has a charitable wing and it has a powerful political wing. The AMA publishes a number of medical journals, the best known is the eponymous JAMA (the Journal of the American Medical Association).
scene from Dr. Mid-Nite #1 (Wagner, Snyder)
The AMA does not issue medical licenses or revoke them; that is the duty of the medical boards of each individual state. From the AMA website: “the AMA is not in a position to take action against a physician’s license to practice medicine.”
Despite what most people seem to believe, membership in the American Medical Association is not mandatory — in fact, less than a third of physicians are members of the AMA (15-30% depending on whose data you accept).
May 14th, 2009 at 9:12 am
AMA? What Beast really needs to worry about is the HIPPA police…
May 14th, 2009 at 9:21 am
Official Comment
Joe,
That thought crossed my mind as well. Check out the ALT text for that image…
May 14th, 2009 at 9:23 am
Ahhh. Missed the alt text. Nice.
May 14th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
Now I have thoughts of Hippo police running around Marvel’s universe….
HIPPA is what exactly?
May 14th, 2009 at 9:02 pm
Official Comment
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, a federal law that, among other things, addresses patient confidentiality. Failure to comply with HIPAA results in huge fines.
May 14th, 2009 at 11:13 pm
I don’t normally nitpick (he lied) but I wanted to point out that in this context the word is “canon”, not “cannon”.
May 18th, 2009 at 2:22 am
Isn’t it a crime to practice medicine without a license? I can’t imagine California (?) allowing Hank to treat patients without an MD, no matter how many PhDs he has. I think even a medical researcher wouldn’t necessarily be allowed, if they had an MD/PhD, but hadn’t done an internship or whatnot.
Also, I would think Hank would be more worried about the ethical implications of confidentiality, rather than how much trouble he will or won’t get into. It’s hard to think of him as someone who will do something unethical, as long as he thinks he’ll get away with it.
January 9th, 2010 at 8:13 pm
This is a semantic issue. What Dr. McCoy is saying is “I could, in theory, get kicked out of the AMA, if I was a member. I’m not, but I none-the-less admire their mission and take their standards quite seriously.”
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