Medical Ethics Advisor
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Ethical Concerns When Pediatric Palliative Care Patients Visit EDs
One ethicist encourages completion of a Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) form where appropriate and available. This puts goals and advance care planning into a set of medical orders that are transferrable across healthcare settings.
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Debate Over Whether ‘Conscience Rule’ Engenders Diversity or Paternalism
Ethicists must balance the rights of providers who have genuine conscience reasons for withholding treatment with the rights of patients to high-quality treatment for all conditions.
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Of Hospitalist Cases With Ethical Issue Identified, Few Formal Consults Occurred
In a recent analysis, 270 patients were evaluated, and 113 ethical issues were identified in 77 of those patients. However, only five formal consults were brought to the facility’s ethics committee for these 270 patients. What does that mean?
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Few Cardiology Treatment Recommendations Based on High-Quality Evidence
The proportion of recommendations supported by data from randomized controlled trials actually decreased from 2008. In looking at updated guidelines, the researchers found that fewer recommendations were supported by randomized controlled trials than in the prior versions.
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Ethics of Cellphone Use in Clinic Waiting Rooms
Ethical issues related to patient cellphone use center around the physician-patient relationship. At issue: How to balance the value of both physicians’ and patients’ time.
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New Data Shed Light on Scientific Misconduct
Publication pressure is one of the strongest predictors of research misconduct.
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Ethics Champion Program Empowers Clinical Teams
As healthcare organizations become more complex, there is a greater need for ethical discussion. Ethics champion programs are one way of encouraging discussions.
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Study: Trust in Physicians Declined When Industry Ties Reported
Research suggests that when patients know that individual doctors receive industry payments, the patients trusted those specific doctors less. The researchers found that transparency negatively affected both patient trust in their own doctors and in the medical profession.
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Unique Informed Consent Challenges of Sequentially Randomized Trials
Some people initially appear to be good candidates for transplant. But complications of treatment may develop — changing the risk-benefit analysis. A repeat consent conference is necessary before each sequential randomization.
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Legal Requirements May Conflict With Clinicians’ Ethical Obligations
It is simply not possible for clinicians to do the right thing if ethical principles and legal requirements are in direct conflict, experts say. But it is important not to lose sight of what the right thing is.