Medical Ethics Advisor
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Is Death Imminent? Conflicts Occur if Clinicians Do Not Make It Clear
Poor communication on prognosis prevents the family from making decisions based on the true situation. If surrogates do not realize death is imminent, they cannot plan for hospice care or contact family members to be there for the patient’s last moments.
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Ethical End-of-Life Care for Homeless Patients
Clinicians should acknowledge their own potential bias and avoid using language in the medical record that is stigmatizing. Also, they can request an ethics consult before making any decision to not provide care for a patient experiencing homelessness.
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Lack of Transparency on Informed Consent Documents Complicates Oncology Trials
Researchers should describe the potential benefits and risks of participating in the trial compared with potential benefits and risks of receiving standard treatment outside the trial. Also, strive to write consent forms that highlight the key issues involved in the decision to join a trial.
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Ethical Misconduct Is Main Reason for Retracted Autism Studies
There have been quite a few retractions of studies in the past few years as it has become easier to automatically scan for faulty or manipulated data. There is a concern the pressure to publish can lead a small group of scientists to commit fraud rather than pursue the truth. Overall, this remains a fairly uncommon occurrence, but any fraud is disturbing.
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Did Study End Early? There Is an Ethical Obligation to Participants
Research participants consent to take on risk for the benefit of others, not for their own benefit. If a trial ends prematurely, researchers should tell participants. Investigators also must ensure any risks participants accepted are mitigated to the fullest extent possible.
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Ethical Considerations When Using Gene-Editing Treatment for Sickle Cell Disease
Like any other treatment, it is important patients are aware of limitations, but without crushing their hopes that a cure might be feasible.
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Ethical Problems When Using Artificial Intelligence Assistance During Surgery
AI-assisted surgery raises some of the same ethical issues as similar tools in healthcare, such as bias and data privacy. However, some problems are specific to surgery.
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Emerging Ethical Issues to Consider When Conducting Community-Engaged Research
Does the community representative possibly have a conflict of interest? How will any monetary incentives to participate in the study be distributed? Is the incentive for individual patients or the whole community?
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Physicians Group Creates Obesity Treatment Resources
American College of Physicians wants to expand education, advocacy, and partnerships to help clinicians care for all overweight patients.
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ChatGPT Provides Solid Responses to Virtual Medical Questions
Artificial intelligence tool provided empathetic, quality answers to online queries, which could help clinicians save time on electronic health record documentation work.