Medical Ethics
RSSArticles
-
Ethics of Cellphone Use in Clinic Waiting Rooms
Ethical issues related to patient cellphone use center around the physician-patient relationship. At issue: How to balance the value of both physicians’ and patients’ time.
-
New Data Shed Light on Scientific Misconduct
Publication pressure is one of the strongest predictors of research misconduct.
-
Ethics Champion Program Empowers Clinical Teams
As healthcare organizations become more complex, there is a greater need for ethical discussion. Ethics champion programs are one way of encouraging discussions.
-
Study: Trust in Physicians Declined When Industry Ties Reported
Research suggests that when patients know that individual doctors receive industry payments, the patients trusted those specific doctors less. The researchers found that transparency negatively affected both patient trust in their own doctors and in the medical profession.
-
Unique Informed Consent Challenges of Sequentially Randomized Trials
Some people initially appear to be good candidates for transplant. But complications of treatment may develop — changing the risk-benefit analysis. A repeat consent conference is necessary before each sequential randomization.
-
Legal Requirements May Conflict With Clinicians’ Ethical Obligations
It is simply not possible for clinicians to do the right thing if ethical principles and legal requirements are in direct conflict, experts say. But it is important not to lose sight of what the right thing is.
-
Remote Ethics Consults Help With Growing Demand for Onsite Ethics
Despite inherent limitations when the ethicist’s input comes instead from a screen or phone, some hospitals are moving toward remote ethics consults. Lack of robust ethics expertise onsite and a surge in demand are contributing factors.
-
Diverse Populations Joining NIH All of Us
Nearly a quarter of a million people have joined the National Institutes of Health’s ambitious All of Us precision medicine initiative — with a large response from racial and ethnic minorities who have been historically victimized or ignored by human research.
-
Electronic Informed Consent Platform Enhances Education and Engagement
Since Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center implemented the electronic informed consent process, thousands of research participants have consented electronically, increasing at a rate of about 500 per month.
-
A Half-Century Later, Guatemala Experiments Still Horrify
Bioethicists recently published a case study of this horrific chapter in human research history after comprehensively reviewing all the records of the Guatemala experiments. The most egregious aspect was that some participants were intentionally infected with syphilis and other STDs.