Medical Ethics Advisor
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'Big Data' in Healthcare has Some Ethicists Concerned
“Big data” is becoming increasingly important in healthcare, with the Precision Medicine Initiative and numerous other quality initiatives seeking de-identified information to improve care.
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Experts: Create Hospital Policies on Ethics of Deactivating ICDs
Addressing implantable cardiac devices in hospital policies on withdrawal of life-sustaining interventions can support clinicians and prevent arbitrary decision-making.
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Autonomy, consent are key ethical concerns with egg freezing
Growing numbers of women are choosing to freeze their eggs in order to delay childbearing until later in life. Some ethicists, however, worry that the existence of oocyte cryopreservation technology places responsibility for juggling career, education, and family-making on women alone.
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Dying in America recommendations not reality in most hospital settings, experts say
The Institute of Medicine’s landmark September 2014 report, Dying in America: Improving Quality and Honoring Individual Preferences Near the End of Life, identified serious deficiencies in end-of-life care in the U.S. Institutions reacted to the report’s recommendations in various ways.
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Chaplain visits in ICU uncommon, study finds
[Editor’s Note: This is the second of a two-part series on the role of chaplains in the hospital setting. In this story, we report on how chaplains and ethicists can work together to ensure ethical care. Last month, we explored how chaplains can help to resolve conflicts over whether to withdraw life-sustaining interventions.]
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Study: Families perceive less aggressive end-of-life care as better quality
Among family members of older patients who died of advanced-stage cancer, earlier hospice enrollment, avoidance of ICU admissions within 30 days of death, and death occurring outside the hospital were associated with perceptions of better end-of-life care, according to a recent study.1
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When Is Hospital Discharge Unsafe?
It’s a difficult yet common scenario: A patient needs home care but there's no reliable caregiver available. Time for an ethics check.
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Is medical ethics education reaching today’s students?
Currently, the more than 140 medical schools in the U.S. teach ethics “in just about 140 different ways,” says D. Micah Hester, PhD, a professor at University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock. Hester is also a clinical ethicist at Arkansas Children’s Hospital.
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Program offers tools, training for more ethical end-of-life care
Patients whose clinicians were trained in the use of a Serious Illness Conversation Guide were much more likely to have more comprehensive documentation in the electronic medical record of their goals, values and priorities.
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Cost-saving effect of palliative care larger for patients with comorbidities
Cost savings linked to palliative care consultations were greater for adults with advanced cancer with higher numbers of comorbidities, according to a recent study.