Articles Tagged With:
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Informed Consent Forms Omit Specifics on Overlapping Surgery
Many hospitals fail to disclose overlapping surgeries in consent forms, raising concerns about autonomy and transparency. Clearer communication, standardized disclosures, and consistent practices are recommended to build patient trust while maintaining efficiency and trainee involvement.
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Physicians Have Ethical Obligation to Provide Palliative Care: New Guidance
The American Medical Association affirms that physicians are ethically obligated to provide palliative care at any stage of illness and in all care settings. Barriers include training gaps, resource shortages, and cultural sensitivity issues, requiring expanded education and systemwide integration.
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Ethical Approaches to Obtain Surrogate’s Research Consent for Critically Ill Patient
Best practices for surrogate consent in critical care research include minimizing coercion, giving surrogates time and space, and ensuring decisions reflect patient values. Strategies to address family disagreements and confirming patient autonomy also are important.
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Early Goals of Care Conversations Ensure Ethical Care in the ED
Integrating goals of care discussions and palliative consults early in the emergency department improves patient-centered outcomes, reduces unnecessary intensive interventions, and lowers costs. Early engagement aligns treatment with patient wishes and helps avoid ethical conflicts.
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Clinicians May Not Be Following Hospital Policies on Withdrawing/Withholding Life-Sustaining Treatments
Although most hospitals have policies on limiting life-sustaining treatment, many clinicians misunderstand, overlook, or inconsistently apply them. Greater education, ethics consultation, and standardized procedures are needed to ensure fairness, safeguard autonomy, and guide appropriate medical care.
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Surge of Scientific Fraud Is a Persistent, Rapidly Growing Ethical Problem
The rise of “paper mills” producing fraudulent research is undermining scientific integrity. Systemic pressures, institutional complicity, and weak detection systems accelerate the problem, threatening public trust in science and posing risks to health research.
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Organ Donation Practices Are Being Ethically Scrutinized: Communication Is a Key Concern
Ethical controversies in organ donation include missteps during procurement, poorly timed family communication, and debate over normothermic regional perfusion. Transparent dialogue, ethical safeguards, and better clinician training help to uphold patient and family values.
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What Are Hyperacute T-Waves and What Do They Mean?
A retrospective study of emergency department patients suspected of having an acute coronary syndrome has shown that a computer system for determining a new quantitative high-amplitude electrocardiogram (ECG) T-wave score has a high specificity and reasonable sensitivity for identifying patients with acute coronary occlusion that performs as well as ECG ST-elevation myocardial infarction criteria.
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Statins for Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms
An analysis of two large, abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) screening populations from Denmark has shown that high-dose statin therapy reduces the rate of AAA growth, the need for repair, and adverse outcomes, such as rupture and death.
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Withdrawing Heart Failure Medications After Restoring Sinus Rhythm in AF Cardiomyopathy Patients
A small trial of withdrawing guideline-directed medical therapy (GDMT) for reduced ejection fraction (EF) heart failure in patients with atrial fibrillation in whom EF recovered after restoration of normal sinus rhythm has shown that withdrawal of GDMT was not associated with a decline in EF over 12 months in most patients.