Medical Ethics Advisor – May 1, 2013
May 1, 2013
View Issues
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Make yourself relevant to clinical areas: Meet providers’ needs for ethical guidance
As a bioethicist, is your approach too theoretical or removed from the practical issues that face clinicians? -
Combating obesity raises ethical concerns
Obesity may be the most difficult and elusive public health problem this country has ever encountered, according to a 2013 Hastings Center Report. -
MDs in "ethically untenable" position with undocumented patients
If an undocumented patient presents to an emergency department, the hospital will likely meet its obligations to stabilize the patient as required by the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, but what happens after that? -
Plight of undocumented patients: "A difficult position"
Hospital ethics committees can place the care of undocumented patients on their discussion agenda periodically, and can facilitate discussions about this issue during medical or interdisciplinary grand rounds, according to a 2013 report. -
More training might be needed on industry gifts
Exposure to a gift restriction policy during medical school was associated with reduced prescribing of two out of three newly introduced psychotropic medications, according to a recent study. -
Will health care reform affect informed consent?
Physicians will need to give more thought to whether and how to discuss the costs of care with patients as a result of health care reform, according to Mark A. Hall, JD, professor of law and public health at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC. -
Minimum criteria ensure consistent evaluation
There is an enormous disparity between the number of patients with end-stage organ failure and the number of organs available for transplantation, resulting in patients dying on the waiting list, according to Christie P. Thomas, MD, professor in the Division of Nephrology at University of Iowa Health Care in Iowa City and chair of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Networks (OPTN) Living Donor Committee. -
Focus on ethics of social networking
Of 600 residency program directors and medical school admissions officers surveyed, 64% reported being somewhat or very familiar with searching individual profiles on social networking sites, 9% reported routinely using social networking sites in the selection process, and 53% stated that unprofessional information on applicants websites could compromise their admission into medical school or residency.