Medical Ethics Advisor – October 1, 2024

Many Hospital Websites Lack Information on Clinical Ethics Consultation Services

Many patients and family members, and even some clinicians, are unaware of the basics of what ethicists do or even how to contact them. However, many ethics services do not post any information at all on their institutional websites, a recent study found.

Ethics Issues for Young Adults Vary Depending on Setting

As a medical student at the University of Michigan, Samantha Lyons, MD, HEC-C, regularly attended both pediatric and adult ethics committee meetings. Lyons noticed that for young adults, different approaches were used based on whether the patient presented to the pediatric or adult setting. In general, pediatric care was more family-oriented, whereas adult care placed more emphasis on patients being autonomous and independent.

Ethicists Can Assist with Elder Mistreatment Cases

Clinicians face many challenging ethical issues with patients experiencing elder mistreatment.

Ethicists Answer These Two Questions on Elder Mistreatment

Should clinicians seek institutional intervention to prevent an abusive or neglectful surrogate from being involved in medical decision-making?

New Guidance on Controversial Organ Transplant Technique

Normothermic regional perfusion (NRP), which restores a donor’s circulation after death, is an ethically controversial new organ donation technique.

Ethical Debate Over Normothermic Regional Perfusion

Medical Ethics Advisor interviewed Adam Omelianchuk, PhD, an assistant professor at Baylor College of Medicine’s Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy and lead author of a paper on ethical concerns involving normothermic regional perfusion.

Ethicists Collaborate with Palliative Care Team

Connie M. Ulrich, PhD, MSN, RN, FAAN, and colleagues often observed close collaboration between ethicists and palliative care providers, but wanted to better understand the intersection between palliative care and ethics consultation. The researchers surveyed 86 pediatric palliative care clinicians at 70 children’s hospitals about why they requested ethics consults.

New Ethical Guidance for Research on Refugee Populations

The federal government recognizes vulnerable and marginalized populations, such as prisoners and children, in research and has created special protection guidelines for investigators to follow when working with these populations. However, refugee populations do not have specific special protections.

Physicians Respond to Patient Messages — Without Reimbursement

Many patients are in the habit of communicating with doctors through patient portals, sending messages about everything from medication side effects to concerning symptoms. Unlike other patient/physician interactions, though, there is no clear standard for whether doctors are reimbursed for the time they spend responding to all of those electronic messages.