Medical Ethics Advisor
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Telemedicine sees rapid growth
Almost all major healthcare systems are adopting some form of telehealth, and it is rapidly becoming a standard of care, says David A. Fleming, MD, MA, MACP, director of University of Missouri’s Center for Health Ethics in Columbia.
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Ebola outbreak brought unprecedented ethical challenges
Sangeeta Lamba, MD, associate professor of emergency medicine and surgery at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School in Newark, says Ebola was one of the biggest systemwide ethical challenges she’s seen in her career. “Nothing has challenged us more in emergency medicine, in the ethical realm, than Ebola,” she says.
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Complex consent process is “mired in ethical problems”
Is a prospective research participant struggling to comprehend a lengthy form on the risks and benefits of the study? “A complex consent process is mired in ethical problems,” says Linda Aldoory, PhD, an associate professor of communication at the University of Maryland in College Park.
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Are opioid ‘pain agreements’ on solid ethical ground?
Failure to prescribe opioid analgesics in a manner that reflects “pharmacovigilance” can expose a physician not only to charges of unprofessional practice, but in extreme cases, even criminal prosecution, warns Ben A. Rich, JD, PhD, emeritus professor of internal medicine (Bioethics) at UC Davis School of Medicine. Malpractice lawsuits alleging the physician’s prescribing led to drug-addicted patients are another concern.
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Good ethical policies can empower clinicians and improve bottom line
While ethics consults typically focus on individual patients’ unique situations, many involve scenarios that recur repeatedly. These are ideally addressed at an organizationwide level, according to Edward J. Dunn, MD, ScD, a fellow in Hospice and Palliative Medicine at Wright State University in Dayton, OH. Dunn is a former director of the Integrated Ethics Program at Lexington (KY) VA Medical Center.
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Updated nursing Code of Ethics
The American Nurses Association recently revised its Code of Ethics, which had not been updated since 2001.
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Are ethical responses clear to providers if family requests inappropriate care?
Lawrence J. Schneiderman, MD, founding co-chair of the University of California, San Diego Medical Center’s Ethics Committee, notes one of the more extreme views that emerged during the “patient’s rights” movement is that patients have a right to receive any treatments they wish, and that physicians should not impose their “paternalistic” power.
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Pathologists ill-prepared to disclose errors, says research
Virtually all pathologists (97%) reported being involved in a minor or serious error, but only about 39% knew whether the error had been conveyed to the patient, according to a recent survey of 106 pathologists, presented at the 2015 annual meeting of the College of American Pathologists.
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Troubling social justice issues stem from cost of dementia care
Healthcare and caregiving costs for dementia patients in the final five years of life are greater than for patients with cancer, heart disease and other illnesses, according to a recent study.
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Ethical debate rages on gene-editing technology
International organizations are urging the scientific community to allow time for ethical debate on new human gene-editing technologies.