Medical Ethics Advisor – November 1, 2012
November 1, 2012
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Making ED organ transplant feasible puts providers in "difficult ethical territory"
At the start of leading an 18-month pilot project to explore organ donation for patients who died in the emergency department (ED) at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Clifton W. Callaway, MD, believed the team was "creating, in reality, what the general public already thought existed." -
EHR use growing fast, but ethical concerns are, too
Access to the electronic health record (EHR) of an individual patient as well as what the person looking at the record does with that information remain concerns for all professionals and institutions involved in patient care. -
Screening test might not be the ethical choice
In general, patients think of a screening test as a good thing, says Arthur L. Caplan, PhD, director of the Division of Medical Ethics at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York, NY. "Patients aapproach this thinking that it is better to test than not test, and doctors have to be aware of that bias," he says. -
"Drug-seeking" label is sometimes wrongly applied
Is there clear and convincing evidence that an individual has no pain that would justify a prescription analgesic and is, therefore, seeking medication solely because of an addictive disorder, recreational use, or with the intent of diverting it to others? -
Large-scale adverse events: Obligation to disclose?
If a provider tells patients they might have been exposed to a blood-borne pathogen when they actually weren't, then the patients worried needlessly when there was no actual health risk.