Medical Ethics
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Greater palliative care knowledge in nursing homes linked to less aggressive end-of-life care
The more nursing directors knew about palliative care, the less likely their patients experienced feeding tube insertion, injections, restraints, suctioning, and emergency department visits, according to a recent study.
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Incidental findings in research subjects: It’s complicated
Incidental findings in research subjects — which can be completely benign or herald significant health problems — raise thorny issues for IRBs that are best addressed through informed consent and a detailed contingency plan.
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Comments, concerns on ANPRM draft may forecast NPRM reaction
A recently published analysis of comments on biospecimen research submitted in response to the 2011 Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking indicates institutional review boards and researchers are facing a series of “tradeoffs” that will likely carry over in the next iteration of the human research Common Rule.
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Changes to Common Rule would change exemptions
The NPRM of the Common Rule in human research protection provides for eight categories of exemption to IRB reviews and discusses a tool that investigators and others could use to determine whether a study is exempt.
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IC under revised Common Rule is transparent, tightened
Common Rule changes under the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking could impact how IRBs handle the informed consent process, by both increasing transparency and imposing stricter new requirements about information provided to prospective subjects.
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Shaking the IRB Foundation
“I think the local IRB has seen its day."
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Did the provider “Google” a patient?
Of 530 medical students, residents and physicians, 64 used Google to research a patient, and 10 had searched for patients on Facebook, according to a recent survey.
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Is it ethical to practice invasive procedures on the newly dead?
Is it ethical to use the bodies of newly dead patients to practice invasive procedures such as thoracotomies, cricothyrotomies, lateral canthotomies, or venous cutdowns?
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Is patient’s POLST form inaccessible to provider?
Even if patients’ end-of-life wishes are meticulously documented using a Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment form, they sometimes are ignored simply because a provider can’t locate the form.
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Placebo effect eases pain — even if participants are aware
The placebo effect eases pain even if research participants know the treatment they are receiving has no medical value whatsoever, according to a recent study.