Defining Informed Consent, Capacity, and Competence with Melanie Heniff, MD, JD

Melanie Heniff, MD, JD, is Chicago native and obtained her MD from Rush Medical College in Chicago before completing a combined residency program in Emergency Medicine and Pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis. She is triple boarded in Emergency Medicine, General Pediatrics, and Pediatric Emergency Medicine. She recently obtained her JD from Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law and is currently an Associate Professor of Clinical Emergency Medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine and partner in Boone County Emergency Medicine. Today's discussion is all about informed consent: how it is defined, documented and dispensed. What actually requires a signed form, what information that signed form should contain and how much information may be too much information? We then get into a conversation about capacity, competence and how to determine capacity.