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Palliative care is an obligation owed every patient with critical disease, and not just those for whom curative options have been exhausted, according to a national medical society.
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"If a mass casualty critical care event were to occur tomorrow, many people with clinical conditions that are survivable under usual health care system conditions may have to forgo life-sustaining interventions owing to deficiencies in supply or staffing."
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While it might seem that physician lectures to patients about the dangers of smoking are falling on deaf ears, experts in the United States and England say doctors who take a few minutes to talk with patients about their smoking really do make a difference when it comes to helping them quit successfully.
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A new study on ICU physicians conducted by an assistant professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland found that physicians are less comfortable discussing end-of-life issues and do it less frequently with African-American patients and their families than with Caucasian patients and families.
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A paper presented at the American Thoracic Society's 2008 International Conference in Toronto in May suggests that patients with end-stage lung cancer may benefit from noninvasive ventilation (NIV).
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"At what price is cure a goal? And what price does hope carry?" Lindsay E. Rockwell, MD, a Northampton, MA oncologist, wrote in a 2007 JAMA article.
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Genetics research tells us that every person has as many as six or even more genetic mutations placing him or her at risk for some disease.
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A physician working in a clinic that sees a high percentage of minority patients who live in public housing reports a difficult time obtaining reports from other providers; his peers in more affluent parts of town who see fewer minority patients report no such delays.
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In the wake of complaints from doctors who said a November 2007 opinion from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) threatened their rights of conscience, ACOG has issued a statement insisting it "affirms the importance of conscience in shaping ethical professional conduct" and will re-examine the controversial opinion, which states that physicians who oppose sterilization and abortion are compelled to refer patients to doctors who don't object to the procedures.
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When research calls for recruiting patients with Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia, it's often hard to know whether patients would want to participate had they been able to make the decision themselves.
