Medical Ethics Advisor – July 1, 2005
July 1, 2005
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Stem cell therapies: Know your limits now
Accepted clinical therapies developed from embryonic stem cell research may be years away, but now is the time for health care providers to ask themselves where they stand on the use of treatments derived from human embryos. -
CME self-reporting: Cheating hardly worth it
With the plethora of continuing medical education (CME) resources available to most physicians in the United States many of them free or paid for by employers it would appear that falsely reporting CME credits would be a pointless risk. -
Practicing defensive medicine not uncommon
Although the prevalence of defensive medicine unnecessary tests, referrals, treatments, or avoidance of some patients altogether out of fear of malpractice litigation has been the subject of debate, a new study reports hundreds of physicians in Pennsylvania say they practice defensive medicine regularly. -
Fight ‘opiophopbia’ to give pain patients relief
The use of opioids for pain relief is limited by what some have called opiophobia, or the fear that patients will become addicted to the drugs. The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) has spelled out a means of addressing the drawbacks to opioid therapy and reducing the fear of prescribing opioids. -
NIH’s new ethics reform stirs up trouble in house
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) found its sweeping new ethics changes were proving a hard pill for its employees to swallow. As a result, they supplemented it with proposals that respond to actual and threatened resignations by some of the key NIH employees who say the new regulation, which requires employees to divest themselves of outside consulting and investments with pharmaceutical and biotech industries, is too restrictive. -
Illinois OKs ‘Sorry Works!’ to curb malpractice suits
Illinois has become the first state to enact legislation based on the idea that an apology might serve as the most effective means to stop some medical malpractice lawsuits. -
News Briefs
A convicted murderer who sought a reprieve so he could donate his liver to his ill sister was executed in May after Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniel was advised by doctors that Gregory Scott Johnson was not a good candidate to be a donor, and that his sister, Debra Otis, would likely receive a donor organ through regular channels within a matter of months. Johnsons bid to become an organ donor resurrected debate about the ethics of accepting organs from condemned inmates.