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Comparative effectiveness research (CER) has the potential to improve outcomes and lower costs, but one key ethical concern is how to best convey to patients that they are participating in research.
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There is a growing focus on identifying a core set of quality metrics that can be used to improve both palliative and end-of-life care.
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Data on physicians prescribing is routinely purchased from pharmacies, with physicians identified through information purchased from the American Medical Association.
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A growing number of clinics around the world are advertising therapeutic applications for stem cell treatments that have not been subjected to well-controlled trials.
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Health care providers frequently have misconceptions about legal requirements of end-of-life care. By educating providers about how to make decisions when people lose capacity, fewer formal ethics or legal consults will be needed.
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The Affordable Care Act invested significantly in comparative effectiveness research (CER), but at the same time, states that no decisions coming out of CER should determine what treatments are covered by insurers, notes Norman Daniels, PhD, professor of ethics and population health at Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, MA.
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While the vast majority of gamete donations are made anonymously, a growing number of countries are enacting laws allowing children access to identifying information about their gamete donor.
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Organ donation consent rates are significantly lower among Hispanics, blacks, and Asians compared to whites, according to recent studies.
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Patients get the specific care they want at the end of life when they document their wishes using a physician orders for life-sustaining treatment (POLST) form, according to a recent study.
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Older individuals who have experience with end-of-life care of others demonstrate greater readiness to participate in advance care planning, according to a recent study.