▸ Obtaining organs. The delegates approved a policy that allows for public solicitation of organs from living donors as long as it adds to the overall number of available organs and does not disadvantage others who are waiting for a transplant.
This type of directed donation is acceptable as long as donors do not receive payment beyond reimbursement for travel, lodging, lost wages, and medical care associated with the donation, according to the new policy.
▸ Emphasizing electronic records. Delegates voted for the AMA to support initiatives that minimize the financial burden to physician practices of adopting and maintaining electronic medical records and instructed AMA officials to get involved in efforts to define and promote standards for the interoperability of health information technology systems. But the delegates also established as AMA policy that physicians should not be required to adopt electronic medical records by either public or private payers.
▸ Meddling in medicine. AMA delegates voiced their opposition to the “interference of government in the practice of medicine” through the use of government-mandated recitations to patients.
▸ Interrogations and immigration. The House of Delegates adopted a set of ethical guidelines to limit physician participation in interrogation of prisoners and detainees. Under the new guidelines, physicians must not conduct or directly participate in interrogations because it undermines the role of the physician as a healer. The prohibition on direct participation includes monitoring with the intention of intervening, under the AMA guidance.
However, the guidelines spell out a role for physicians to help develop interrogation strategies that are not coercive.
On caring for illegal immigrants, delegates voted to have AMA leadership ask that when federal agencies such as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security or U.S. Customs and Border Protection have custody of an undocumented foreign national, that they assume the cost of that person's health care instead of passing it on to the physician or hospital.