Medical Ethics Advisor – January 1, 2006
January 1, 2006
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Not just financial advice: Trustees untapped resource for ethics guidance
When the topic of medical ethics comes up in conversation or literature, it usually refers to the ethics of providing direct patient care. But the ethics of hospital trustees have a profound influence on the delivery of care and the overall health of nonprofit hospitals, and yet there has been very little examination of the ethics of trusteeship. -
Trust in medical research based on ethics, disclosure
Ensuring that medical research is conducted ethically, objectively, and with the trust of the public is getting more difficult, even as the urgency for new research in pharmaceuticals and procedures increases. -
Medical researchers must learn from past mistakes
Early medical researchers were an ethical bunch, possibly because they had little choice. Many conducted experiments and tests on themselves (including one who snaked a catheter through his arm and into his heart, then climbed two flights of stairs to take an X-ray to prove a person could survive cardiac catheterization), because the researchers couldnt bring themselves to do untested procedures on others. -
Minorities as willing as whites to be in studies
New findings by researchers at the National Institutes of Health show that minorities participate in health research studies at the same rate as non-Hispanic whites when they are made aware of the study and meet the medical requirements. -
In pandemic, public health offsets patient autonomy
The American Medical Association (AMA) has issued new ethical guidelines to help physicians balance public health goals with the interests of individual patients during epidemics. -
Will health care workers skip out during a disaster?
A snow storm would likely draw in just about anyone who could make it to the hospital, but in an infectious disease outbreak such as SARS, about half of a health care institutions employees might be unwilling to work, according to a study published in the Journal of Urban Health. -
Ethical considerations after a patient dies
As the spectrum of end-of-life issues continues to expand, more and more questions arise for clinicians working with patients, families, and institutions. -
Physician-assisted death doesn’t lesson patient trust
There is little evidence to support the argument that legalizing physician-assisted death would reduce patients trust in their doctors, according to researchers at Wake Forest (NC) University Baptist Medical Center. -
Film teaches HCWs the art of disclosing medical errors
A video on the art of disclosing medical errors, created by an ethicist at Emory University in Atlanta, is being made available for free on-line viewing.