Medical Ethics
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More Research Needed Into How IRBs Operate and Make Decisions
The revised Common Rule’s provision that a single IRB should review protocols for multisite studies raises questions about how these IRBs handle conflicts of interest, local knowledge, and other issues. When a group of researchers sought to answer these questions, they found a big obstacle: Some IRBs, including the largest ones, were unwilling to participate.
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Steps for IRBs to Better Safeguard Participants
Technology is moving far faster than federal human research protection laws and regulations. But there are a few things IRBs can do that will help protect study participants.
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Combining Large Data Sets Challenges IRBs, Researchers to Ensure Privacy
The problems with HIPAA and current methods of protecting the privacy of individuals in research are being challenged in ways that were not possible in previous decades due to the ease and use of big data. Data scientists and other savvy investigators can combine de-identified data in a way that makes cross-references and re-identification possible.
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Mobile Technology, Wearables Are Changing Research, Challenging IRBs
Mobile technology and wearable sensors are broadening the limits of research and changing how IRBs view privacy. The voluminous data can point to health strategies previously unimaginable.
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Big Data Are Changing How IRBs Think About Research
Researchers and sponsors are adapting quickly to virtual technologies and using big data in studies, forcing IRBs and research protection programs to adapt — particularly when it comes to privacy. When IRBs review studies that use big data, they need to be reviewed through the lens of ethical review.
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Did Parent Refuse Vaccine? Nurses Offer Strong Opinions on Dismissal
This can become an ethical issue for nurses if their practice has a dismissal policy that conflicts with their strongly held convictions about the right response to vaccine-refusing families.
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Ending Race Disparities: ‘Less About Clinical Interventions, Much More About Ethics’
A leading expert explains why disparities persist and how ethicists can help.
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Ethical Guidance Needed if Someone Wants to Override Patient’s Wishes
Hospitals could put a policy in writing to make clear the obligation of staff to follow a patient’s previously expressed decisions and the obligation of the surrogate to make the decision the patient would want, not the decision the surrogate would want.
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ICU Length of Stay Linked to Burnout in Critical Care Nurses
Considering longer length of stay is a possible consequence of burnout, there is an ethical concern that patients are harmed when exposed to healthcare systems with high rates of clinical staff burnout.
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When Clinicians Ask Urgent Ethical Questions, Time Is of the Essence
When busy clinicians ask for ethics help, they need assistance now, not weeks later. Ethics’ response should be just as timely as any medical or surgical subspecialty service. When clinicians receive a quick, helpful response from ethics, word spreads quickly in healthcare organizations.