Disclosure in informed consent, a modified conversation analysis of four male surgeons' speech with male and female patients

grantor: University of TorontoInformed consent legislation requires physicians to disclose information that a reasonable person in the patient's particular situation would need to know in order to make a decision about treatment options. From the perspective of feminist bioethics, gender is inextricably linked to a person's particular situation. This study analyzed the speech of male physicians in relation to patient gender during discussions of informed consent for identical treatments. Qualitative methods of analysis were used to describe both the structure and content of speech. The results demonstrated that the overall structure of an informed consent encounter did not vary for male and female patients and that male physicians' speech was not explicitly tailored to account for patient gender. The results also demonstrated that male physicians' speech included instances of disfluency, particularly prevalent during risk disclosure, when speaking to both male and female patients. Future studies should investigate further, perhaps by alternative methods, whether physicians account for patient gender during disclosure.M.Sc