Medical Ethics
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Evolving Attitudes on Ethics of Adolescent Self-Consent
Ethical considerations regarding adolescent self-consent in healthcare decisions
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Ethicists Want to Improve Consults — But More (and Better) Data Are Needed
Quality improvement is uniquely challenging in the ethics field because of lack of time, lack of resources, and, to some extent, the nature of clinical ethics itself.
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Ethics Education Is Inconsistent, But Students Are Interested
Ethics instruction still varies widely at medical schools in terms of the content taught and the amount of time allocated.
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Fraudulent ‘Participants’ Are Ethical Concern — Even in Qualitative Studies
Researchers need to be vigilant in identifying suspicious responses in study samples.
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Difficult Cases, Unclear Boundaries Put Ethicists at Risk for Burnout
Many ethicists play an important role in addressing burnout at their organizations — by identifying moral distress, connecting clinicians with resources, or holding debriefings after difficult cases. Yet ethicists themselves are experiencing burnout.
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Higher Mortality for Neurosurgery Patients with Pre-Existing DNRs
Neurosurgeons at University of Rochester Medicine observed that patients with pre-existing do-not-resuscitate (DNR) orders receiving cranial neurosurgery tended to have poor outcomes. To see if their clinical observations were reflected in actual data, the neurosurgeons analyzed 30,384 patients who underwent cranial neurosurgery in 2018-2020.
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Audio Assistance Improves Minorities’ Willingness to Participate in Research
Audio-assisted informed consent forms significantly improved the willingness of a sample of primarily African American patients to participate in a mock clinical trial.
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It Is Not Just Physicians: Residents also Receive Industry Payments
Drug and device makers publicly report all gifts made to physicians and advanced practice providers, as required by the 2010 Physician Payments Sunshine Act. Residents and other trainees are excluded from this requirement — but that does not mean these providers are not receiving payments.
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Informed Consent Practices for Acute Stroke Treatment Vary
Currently, the two cornerstones of acute ischemic stroke treatment are intravenous thrombolysis and, for patients with large vessel occlusions, endovascular thrombectomy. For treating clinicians, the question becomes: How do clinicians ensure that patients (or their surrogate decisionmakers) make an informed decision while avoiding treatment delays that can result in worse outcomes?
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Ethical Decision-Making with Deprescribing for Older Adults
Physicians must consider multiple ethical issues when making decisions on deprescribing for older adults with dementia, a recent study found.