Published by Thomson Reuters, The Law of Acute Care Medicine addresses the complexities that arise when medicine, law, and ethics intersect in the treatment and caring for acutely ill patients.

Written by Laura Hawryluck a critical care physician and Michael Fraleigh a health law lawyer,  The Law of Acute Care Medicine is the first Canadian resource to focus exclusively on the needs of acute care professionals and those providing them with legal advice. 

The treatment of acutely deteriorating patients is among the greatest medical, legal, and ethical challenges of modern medicine. Decisions that need to be made can be some of the most difficult ones for the front-line clinicians and many of these decisions, once made, cannot be reversed. The legal issues that arise have broad implications for societys access to and use of healthcare services.

The Law of Acute Care Medicine focuses on the needs of the acute care professional and those providing legal advice to them. Using a practical approach, this book addresses the complex topics that all healthcare and legal professionals working in acute care settings need to understand. It includes answers to frequently asked questions and provides clinical tools to improve practice. Case-based discussions clarify how the law is applied in medical practice and can be used as teaching tools for both healthcare and legal professionals, whether as independent learners or in classroom settings.

The medico-legal topics examined in this publication include

• Application of standard of care
• Consent and capacity
• Confidentiality and privacy
• End of life, withdrawal of life support, CPR
• Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID)