AEGiS-13IAC: The impact of therapeutic progress on physician commitment to AIDS care.

13th International AIDS Conference


Durban, South Africa - July 9-July 14, 2000

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The impact of therapeutic progress on physician commitment to AIDS care.

Int Conf AIDS 2000 Jul 9-14; 13:(abstract no. ThOrD695)

Bayer R, Oppenheimer G
R. Bayer, Columbia University, 600 West 168th Street, New York, N.Y. 10032, United States, Tel.: +1 212 305 1957, Fax: +1 212 305 6832, E-mail: rb8@columbia.edu

ISSUES: Early in the AIDS epidemic those physicians who were drawn to the care of patients were motivated by deep commitments stemming from sexual identification, concern for the marginalized and an interest in confronting a grave threat to the public health. In commiting themselves, they had to confront great suffering, constant death and the limits of a curative medicine. They also had to confront the limits of the traditional doctor-patient relationship. How have advances in therapy affected the nature of the commitments made during a period of therapeutic impotence?

DESCRIPTION: We employed the techniques of oral history, involving in-depth interviews with 75 physicians over 300 hours.

CONCLUSIONS: Despite the exhaustion and despair that often characterized the response of physicians in the period before 1995, most believed they would remain AIDS caregivers for the duration of their professional lives. Indeed, they typically felt that leaving the care of AIDS patients would represent a betrayal of their professional duty. Ironically, the advent of HAART has opened the way to the erosion of the deep commitments of the earlier years. While most doctors have continued to care for their AIDS patients, some have begun to treat patients with other diseases. Many have rediscovered the "virtues" of traditional professional Remarkably, a number of the most committed have begun to consider leaving AIDS care completely.

Keywords: AEGIS, Physicians, Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, Antiretroviral Therapy, Highly Active, Virtues, Caregivers, Empathy, Disease Outbreaks, Death, Life, Interviews, Male, Human, ethics, therapy, drug therapyKWDaegis,physicians,acquiredimmunodeficiencysyndrome,antiretroviraltherapy,highlyactive,virtues,caregivers,empathy,diseaseoutbreaks,death,life,interviews,male,human,ethics,therapy,drugtherapy
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ThOrD695

Copyright © 2000 - International AIDS Society (IAS). Reproduction of this abstract (other than one copy for personal reference) must be cleared through the IAS.