Medical Ethics Advisor
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What Happens if Your Study Fails to Meet Recruitment Targets?
Failure to find enough clinical trial participants is more than just a logistical problem. There also are important ethical concerns. If the study remains incomplete, investigators risk violating the principle of beneficence.
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Tricky Business: When a Surgeon Also Is a Researcher
Consider this seemingly innocent, straightforward question: “Would you be interested in participating in a clinical trial?” Now consider the ethical implications if a surgeon asks his or her own patient the same question.
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Tissue Donors Can Track How Researchers Use Samples
Tissue donors never knew who used their samples or how. For the first time, tissue donors are using blockchain technology to track how scientists use their samples through a pilot program.
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Medical Crowdfunding Is Not Providing a Proper Safety Net for the Neediest Patients
While safety nets are supposed to catch everyone in need equally, crowdfunding can be more effective for some people than others. People in states with more uninsured populations, worse poverty, and higher rates of medical debt are more likely to try to raise funds, but are less likely to succeed.
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Staffing Shortages Are Hindering Clinical Trial Completion
Some sites are curtailing new enrollment across all studies, or at least for studies that are not as economically sustainable as others. Sites estimate the average added cost to recruit and train a new patient-facing staff member is approximately six months pay. Due to the limited availability of qualified research staff, sites are replacing research coordinators with individuals without clinical research experience.
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Ethical Concerns if Researchers Examine Opioid Use During Pregnancy
Researchers who are examining opioid use in pregnant patients face significant ethical complexities when designing study protocols. A group of ethicists examined these issues and concluded an embedded approach to address ethical implications of these studies is needed.
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Unused Donated Organs, Transplant Inequities Lead to Calls for Systemic Changes
There is longstanding inequity in access to transplantation, substantial nonuse of donated organs, and unexplained variability in performance across the transplant system, according to a recent report.
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Ethical Use of Restraint Hinges on Decision-Making Capacity
The situation becomes ethically complex if the patient’s capacity is unclear, ambiguous, or fluctuating. It is much harder to know if, when, and how to avoid inflicting harm while balancing the patient’s legal and ethical right to make their own decisions.
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Medical Incapacity Holds Require Ethical Oversight
Clinicians feel conflicted about their ethical obligations. On one hand, they know it is unsafe for a confused person to be allowed to walk out of the hospital. On the other hand, they are understandably worried about their legal risks.
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Parents Struggle to Contact Ethics Consultants
If they do not know the service even exists, how can patients or families ask for an ethics consult?