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Zika Virus Update — What Do Your Patients Need to Know?

Approximately four in 10 (42%) U.S. adults in households in which someone is pregnant or considering becoming pregnant don’t realize the Zika virus can be sexually transmitted, according to results from a new national survey. The poll is part of an ongoing series of surveys focused on the public’s response to public health emergencies by the Harvard Opinion Research Program at the Boston-based Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Acute Ischemic Stroke: Focus on Reperfusion

Time is brain. Neural tissue’s exquisite sensitivity to ischemia indicates the emergency nature of acute stroke care. The faster that definitive stroke treatment is administered following the onset of ischemia, the better the outcomes.

Autonomy, consent are key ethical concerns with egg freezing

Growing numbers of women are choosing to freeze their eggs in order to delay childbearing until later in life. Some ethicists, however, worry that the existence of oocyte cryopreservation technology places responsibility for juggling career, education, and family-making on women alone.

Dying in America recommendations not reality in most hospital settings, experts say

The Institute of Medicine’s landmark September 2014 report, Dying in America: Improving Quality and Honoring Individual Preferences Near the End of Life, identified serious deficiencies in end-of-life care in the U.S. Institutions reacted to the report’s recommendations in various ways.

Chaplain visits in ICU uncommon, study finds

[Editor’s Note: This is the second of a two-part series on the role of chaplains in the hospital setting. In this story, we report on how chaplains and ethicists can work together to ensure ethical care. Last month, we explored how chaplains can help to resolve conflicts over whether to withdraw life-sustaining interventions.]

Study: Families perceive less aggressive end-of-life care as better quality

Among family members of older patients who died of advanced-stage cancer, earlier hospice enrollment, avoidance of ICU admissions within 30 days of death, and death occurring outside the hospital were associated with perceptions of better end-of-life care, according to a recent study.¹

When Is Hospital Discharge Unsafe?

It’s a difficult yet common scenario: A patient needs home care but there's no reliable caregiver available. Time for an ethics check.

Is medical ethics education reaching today’s students?

Currently, the more than 140 medical schools in the U.S. teach ethics “in just about 140 different ways,” says D. Micah Hester, PhD, a professor at University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock. Hester is also a clinical ethicist at Arkansas Children’s Hospital.

Knowledge is power: CME reduces HIV care costs

At a time of fiscal pressure on healthcare budgets, researchers are finding potentially dramatic cost reductions, not to mention improved medical outcomes, through continuing medical education.

FDA moves to ban powdered gloves

The FDA has proposed banning powdered gloves in healthcare, a move that should protect patients and healthcare workers from latex allergens and was nevertheless criticized as long-delayed.