-
When performing whole genome sequencing, clinicians may encounter incidental findings unrelated to the condition for which the patient was tested. The American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics recently recommended that clinical labs should be required to analyze 56 genes that increase the likelihood of diseases for which there is an intervention.
-
Occasionally, clinicians, patients, or surrogates reject an ethicists advice or recommendations. In this scenario, bioethicists should seek to maintain working relationships and continue dialogue.
-
Patient safety is at risk if clinicians with undiagnosed conditions causing impairment continue to practice, but colleagues often fail to report the impairment.
-
Informed consent is a key ethical concern when health care providers are consenting to a mandatory vaccination, since autonomous patient choice is not possible where vaccination is a condition of employment.
-
More hospitals and health care facilities are developing policies, procedures, resources, and training modules to address disclosure of mistakes to patients and families.
-
An issue that can frequently arise in the area of genomic research is what to do with incidental findings (IFs) discoveries concerning a research subject that are beyond the scope of the study, but could have potential health importance for the subject.
-
Too often, IRBs spend precious meeting time debating the merits of a studys scientific and other subjective fine points, overlooking issues that have a greater impact on human subject safety, experts say.
-
Bioethics, genetic research also addressed at annual conference
-
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has now said that clinicians wishing to perform a fecal transplant for treatment of Clostridium difficile will have to obtain an investigational new drug (IND) application.
-
Experts say IRBs spend much of their time discussing informed consent issues and nuances, and yet this is the area cited most often in recent regulatory letters sent to research institutions.