Medical Ethics Advisor
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Inadequate, Missing, or Inaccessible Goals of Care Documentation Is Ethical Concern
Goals-of-care documentation remains inconsistent and incomplete, limiting goal-concordant care. Research reveals disparities across patient groups and delayed documentation near death, emphasizing the role of ethicists in promoting early, equitable, artificial intelligence-assisted, and standardized documentation of patient preferences and end-of-life wishes.
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Clinicians Fail to Address Risks of Medical Interventions for Patients with Dementia
Clinicians often overlook dementia-specific risks when recommending interventions, leading to uninformed consent and decisional regret among caregivers. Supported and shared decision-making frameworks can promote autonomy, respect, and ethical care tailored to patients’ cognitive capacity and evolving goals.
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Oncologists Face Serious Ethical Dilemmas Caused by Persistent Drug Shortages
Persistent cancer drug shortages force oncologists into ethically fraught choices about rationing and patient prioritization. Shortages disrupt care and research, prompting calls for institutional ethics committees, transparent allocation criteria, and national reforms to ensure equitable access and safer drug supply chains.
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Unique Ethical Dilemmas Occur in Long-Term Care Settings: Staff Need Ethics Resources
Long-term care facilities face ethical challenges involving patient dignity, resource use, and business practices. Research highlights communication issues, caregiver shortages, and limited ethics support, urging institutions to strengthen ethics committees, palliative access, and policy alignment with patient-centered, equitable care standards.
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Drug Side Effects, Technology-Related Risks Often Are Conveyed Inadequately
Informed consent forms frequently omit crucial information about drug side effects and technology-related risks in research. Studies call for clearer disclosure on data governance, digital risks, participant rights, and vendor accountability to uphold transparency, equity, and participant autonomy.
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Ethical Considerations Involving Timing of Decision to Withdraw Life-Sustaining Therapy
Withdrawal of life-sustaining therapy often occurs prematurely because of uncertainty and institutional culture. Studies reveal machine learning insights into bias and ethical misuse of prognostic tools, underscoring the need for patience, communication, and ethics consultation before irreversible withdrawal decisions.
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Growing Ethical Concerns Surround AI Therapy Chatbots
Artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots increasingly are used for mental health support, but ethicists warn of risks, including bias, loss of autonomy, privacy breaches, and overreliance on unvalidated tools. A new ethical framework emphasizes transparency, inclusivity, and early ethicist involvement in AI design and deployment.
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Ethics Consult Trends Reveal the Best Targets for Education
Hospitals are using ethics consult data to identify recurring ethical challenges and tailor educational efforts. Although consult tracking helps target training needs, experts caution against overreliance on frequency data, stressing interactive education and case-based discussions for meaningful ethics learning.
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Informed Consent Practices in Anesthesia Field Raise Ethical Concerns
Rushed or inconsistent anesthesia consent practices threaten patient autonomy and trust. Studies reveal inadequate risk disclosure and variable standards. Ethicists urge earlier, more transparent consent processes and education to align anesthesia practices with ethical principles of autonomy and informed choice.
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Ethical Controversy Over Researchers — and Soon, IRBs — Using AI Tools
As researchers and institutional review boards increasingly use artificial intelligence (AI) to draft protocols and analyze data, concerns arise over accountability, bias, and research integrity. Ethicists emphasize transparency, disclosure, and human oversight to ensure AI supports, rather than replaces, ethical judgment in research oversight.