Medical Ethics Advisor
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Ethical Concerns with Portable MRIs in Research
New portable magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technologies are being developed, allowing study investigators to conduct field-based research in remote settings. The introduction of portable MRI technologies means that new users, some with less experience with MRI research, are using MRI in new locations. There also is increased variation in image resolution. All those factors raise concerns about researchers’ ability to maintain quality control.
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Ethicists Are Addressing Ableism in Medical Education, Clinical Practice
There is increasing attention to the issue of ableism in healthcare. One concern is that medical education is not doing enough to include the perspectives of people with disabilities.
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Recent Cases Add to Complexity of Treatment Withdrawal Decision-Making
Many ethics consults involve conflicts over withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment. If patients’ families are aware of recent cases demonstrating recovery potential in patients with traumatic brain injury who were thought to have a low chance of survival, it can make the decision-making process even more challenging.
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Mental Health Issues Are Coming Up During Ethics Consults
Mental health issues are coming up more frequently during ethics consults, according to ethicists interviewed by Medical Ethics Advisor.
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Many Ethics Committees Lack Formal Process for Education, Orientation
One of the primary functions of an ethics committee is education — for members, for clinicians, and for patients and their family members. Yet most ethics committees have no formal orientation process, and many have no ongoing ethics education process, according to a recent survey of hospital leaders at AdventHealth.
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Medical Students Feel Unprepared to Manage Financial Conflicts
Many medical students feel inadequately prepared to avoid negative influence from industry and feel inadequately educated on conflicts of interest, a recent study found.
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New Data Show Trends in Pediatric Ethics Consults
Pediatric ethics consultations are very infrequent and involve more diverse issues than ethics consults for adult patients. This makes it difficult to identify trends and changes.
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Diversity of Clinical Trial Participants Is Ethical Concern
Researchers soon will have additional guidance for increasing enrollment of participants from historically underrepresented populations. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a draft guidance, Diversity Action Plans to Improve Enrollment of Participants from Underrepresented Populations in Clinical Studies.
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Stigmatizing Language in Patient Charts Linked to Diagnostic Errors
You have probably seen — and possibly even used — terms such as “difficult patient” or “drug-seeking” in medical charts. But did you ever wonder if stigmatizing language puts patients at risk for diagnostic error?
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Oncologists’ Ethical Concerns on Use of AI in Cancer Care
Most oncologists feel responsible for protecting patients from biased artificial intelligence tools, but few were confident in their ability to do so, a recent study found.