Conflict between parents, physicians, and healthcare professionals in medical decision-making: How to address it—A systematic review from the ESPGHAN Ethics Committee

Medical decisions about pediatric gastroenterology pathologies often involve collaboration between the medical team and the family. On occasions, conflict may arise between the individuals involved in decision making (team–family conflict) causing delays in managing a child's health condition. Little is known on the strategies that can be implemented to address such conflicts. Using the systematic review model by McCullough et al., an electronic literature search was conducted using PUBMED databases and SCOPUS. Studies published between 2001 and 2022 were analyzed to identify high-risk families, the barriers and facilitators involved in the team–family conflict and the circumstances in which healthcare professionals can be ethically justified to override parents' medical decisions and to trigger the state intervention. The present review provides recommendations on the more suitable ways to manage team–family conflict and gives a practical approach using a case vignette.