Medical Ethics Advisor – February 1, 2006
February 1, 2006
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Caregivers of terminally ill patients benefit from education and support
For many patients dying of cancer, home is where they want to spend the last weeks of their lives. Their caregivers often spouses, life partners or children may be willing to give whatever care their loved one needs, but can find themselves overwhelmed, unsure, and at risk for depression and other health problems themselves. -
Panel issues guidelines for practice on the newly dead
They are considered one of the most valuable teaching tools for doctors in training, yet they also are the topic of a highly charged ethical debate the bodies of newly deceased patients. -
Medical student behavior: A sign of things to come?
When hiring new physicians, health care practices might want to look beyond grade transcripts, according to a medical school professor in California who has determined that medical students who were disciplined in school for irresponsible attendance or patient care are nearly nine times more likely to be disciplined by their medical boards when they become practicing physicians. -
Stung by bad publicity, hospitals alter practices
Many hospitals have adopted more generous charity-care guidelines for uninsured patients after a barrage of publicity about aggressive hospital billing and collection practices and a spate of lawsuits alleging hospitals overcharged uninsured patients, according to a health care policy expert. -
FSMB toughens sexual boundaries policy
The Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) plans to revise the sexual boundaries policy used by state medical boards in determining sexual boundary violations by physicians. -
News Briefs
The Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine has begun an 18-month project to examine the field of vaccine development and use and to propose an ethical framework to help guide researchers, pharmaceutical companies, public health agencies, health care providers, and citizens regarding vaccines and their safe, effective, and ethical use.