Medical Ethics Advisor
RSSArticles
-
Ethics of Cellphone Use in Clinic Waiting Rooms
Ethical issues related to patient cellphone use center around the physician-patient relationship. At issue: How to balance the value of both physicians’ and patients’ time.
-
New Data Shed Light on Scientific Misconduct
Publication pressure is one of the strongest predictors of research misconduct.
-
Ethics Champion Program Empowers Clinical Teams
As healthcare organizations become more complex, there is a greater need for ethical discussion. Ethics champion programs are one way of encouraging discussions.
-
Study: Trust in Physicians Declined When Industry Ties Reported
Research suggests that when patients know that individual doctors receive industry payments, the patients trusted those specific doctors less. The researchers found that transparency negatively affected both patient trust in their own doctors and in the medical profession.
-
Unique Informed Consent Challenges of Sequentially Randomized Trials
Some people initially appear to be good candidates for transplant. But complications of treatment may develop — changing the risk-benefit analysis. A repeat consent conference is necessary before each sequential randomization.
-
Legal Requirements May Conflict With Clinicians’ Ethical Obligations
It is simply not possible for clinicians to do the right thing if ethical principles and legal requirements are in direct conflict, experts say. But it is important not to lose sight of what the right thing is.
-
Remote Ethics Consults Help With Growing Demand for Onsite Ethics
Despite inherent limitations when the ethicist’s input comes instead from a screen or phone, some hospitals are moving toward remote ethics consults. Lack of robust ethics expertise onsite and a surge in demand are contributing factors.
-
Oregon POLST Being Completed More Often and Earlier
Of Oregonians who died between 2015 and 2016, 45% had POLST forms in the registry, compared with about 31% between 2010 and 2011.
-
Chaplains Can Have ‘Huge Impact’ on Patient Care — If They Are Called
Critical care nurses need to incorporate board-certified chaplains’ contributions into the patient plan of care during bedside report, the authors of a recent paper argued.
-
Dementia Program Linked to High Hospice Use, Low Acute Care Utilization
Patients participating in a comprehensive dementia care co-management program were highly involved in advance care planning, high rates of hospice use, and lower acute care visits near the end of life, according to a recent study.