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Among the latest healthcare trends seeking to advance "individualized medicine" are private companies marketing genetic testing directly to patients.
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The Hastings Center is exploring the ethical challenges that clinicians and organizations face when providing medical care to undocumented immigrants in the United States. The project is supported by a grant from the Overbrook Foundation Domestic Human Rights Program.
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The case of a pair of "craniopagus" twins (conjoined at the head) illustrates the complex bioethical issues involved in deciding whether to attempt separation surgery, according to an article1 in a recent issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).
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An implanted heart rhythm device may generate repeated painful shocks during a patient's final hours, at a time when the natural process of dying often affects the heart's rhythm. Yet, clinicians rarely discuss options for limiting these distressing events at the end of life (EOL), according to a new review of literature1, appearing in American Journal of Nursing.
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Palliative care was only recognized as a specialty five years ago by the American College of Graduate Medical Education. Because of its newness, those working in the specialty are still learning how to effectively collect data and make use of the information once they have collected it.
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Palliative care isn't just for hospice patients; it also is used to manage the symptoms of those with chronic or advanced illnesses. One hospital system in Michigan has brought palliative care into all aspects of hospital care for all patients.
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For years, federal regulations have deemed the research use of deidentified blood and tissue samples collected in clinical procedures to be non-human subjects research, and therefore, they have not required informed consent from the patients from whom they were taken.
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According to a study that appears in Archives of Surgery, between 85% and 94% of patients were willing to sign forms permitting medical residents to assist surgeons, but many will not consent to giving residents a major role during surgery.1 Fewer patients consented when the form offered more detailed information about the education level or role of the student.
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The manner in which investigators, research institutions, and review boards handle incidental findings has evolved in recent years, with a consensus now forming around the belief that research sites have an ethical responsibility when it comes to reporting certain incidental findings to research subjects.
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According to a follow-up study in the American Journal of Public Health, few states in the United States have properly addressed ethical issues surrounding pandemic flu preparedness in recent years.
