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Some researchers in the UK have renewed debate over the limits placed on medical research by ethics regulations, saying ethical red tape is "stifling" advances in medicine. But ethicists in the United States say the argument is nothing new and that the review process for clinical trials protects both human subjects and research.
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The push to make hospital infection rates more transparent is, on its face, an institutional and a patient safety issue. But there also is an ethics component, experts say, and health care has a duty to inform the public on hospital-acquired infections and to put that information in perspective so that it is not misleading.
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One of your patients is undergoing chemotherapy for cancer and is struggling with severe nausea. She tells you she wants to add acupuncture to her regimen of care; you have never been convinced that acupuncture provides benefits. What is your duty to the patient?
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Given enough experience and patience, a physician can become adept at dealing with patients who they find noncompliant or overly demanding. But how does a clinician deal with a patient he or she finds utterly intolerable to be around someone who is abusive, insulting, or completely unlikable?
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Is your drug database leading you astray?; Women's hearts less well-tended than men's?; AMA statement against MD participation in executions; 'Older, artier' students make better doctors
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Medical journals nationwide are taking a harder look at their conflict-of-interest or financial disclosure policies, as publications acknowledge a spate of embarrassing examples of journals failing to cite ties between authors and the companies producing the treatments they write about.
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States will be granted "report cards" on their policies on pain management in an attempt to show how well or inadequately U.S. medicine helps cancer patients deal with chronic pain.
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When faced with a pediatric patient who has a heart condition that could lead to chronic health problems later in life, a physician rarely would hesitate to bring the condition to the attention of the child's parents and discuss ways to address it.
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A new study attempts to validate the argument that emergency medicine services (EMS) not staffed by paramedics could reduce the number of hopeless ambulance trips to the hospital if emergency medical technicians (EMTs) were allowed to end resuscitation efforts sooner in patients who are in cardiac arrest.
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Fear of being sued for malpractice is certainly one obstacle affecting physicians' willingness to disclose medical errors. But other, more personal and altruistic factors may play even bigger roles in whether a doctor decides to reveal his or her own medical errors, according to a University of Iowa bioethicist.
