Category: Ethics

Jonathan D. Rockoff
New programs are underway to help nurses cope with compassion fatigue, an occupational hazard for caregivers that also puts patients at risk of substandard care, today’s Informed Patient column reports.
Though the intense emotional demands on nurses are as old as the profession itself, researchers have only in recent years begun to […]

MEwens
Is donating bone marrow more like giving blood or a kidney?
According to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, it’s the former. The court ruled today in favor of plaintiffs including a California nonprofit, MoreMarrowDonors.org, that planned a pilot project to offer incentives such as a $3,000 charitable gift or scholarship to help […]

MEwens
Ever wonder who’s behind the new recommendations for, say, how to treat high cholesterol or whether to screen men for prostate cancer? More specifically, do you ever wonder whether experts on the panels that develop guidelines have financial ties to pharma or device companies that might be affected?
The Institute of Medicine recommends that […]

MEwens
As the WSJ reported over the weekend, kids and adolescents diagnosed with “hidden disabilities” such as chronic fatigue syndrome are posing unique challenges to cash-strapped public schools.
Schools are struggling to accommodate kids’ needs, which may include at-home tutors, altered schedules and limits on activities. And the nature of the conditions, which are tough […]

MEwens
Treponema pallidum, the bacterium that causes syphilis.
Last fall the heads of the CDC and NIH called freshly unearthed 1940s-era experiments that intentionally infected Guatemalan prisoners, military personnel and others with syphilis and other STDs “regrettable and deeply saddening.”
Today members of a subcommittee of the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues presented […]

MEwens
Tables are Turned: Teva Pharmaceutical Industries mostly makes generic drugs, but now finds itself acting like Big Pharma — defending the patent for a brand-name drug in order to stave off the threat of generic competition, the WSJ reports. Mylan and Momenta are challenging the validity of Teva’s patents for the multiple-sclerosis drug […]

MEwens
Accepting Facebook friend requests from current or former patients is a lousy idea, the British Medical Association is telling physicians.
The group’s new social media guidance notes that “because of the power imbalance that can exist in any doctor-patient relationship,” it’s important to establish a professional boundary. And that can be tough to do […]

MEwens
When parents are physically harming their kids, the state can step in and remove them from the home. Should that happen if a child is severely obese?
A commentary in the Journal of the American Medical Association says it should be considered, but only “in carefully selected situations.”
The two authors, Lindsey Murtagh of the […]

MEwens
Hip Suits: Artificial hips made by Johnson & Johnson’s DePuy Orthopaedics unit are the subject of about 1,000 lawsuits claiming J&J knew about problems with some of the metal-on-metal joint replacements before it ceased their production in 2009, the WSJ reports. A Wells Fargo analyst says J&J stands to lose more than $1 […]

MEwens
The medical residents starting their training today belong to a generation that doesn’t think twice about broadcasting even intimate details of their lives via texts, Twitter and other social media.
That can get tricky when those doctors’ lives begin to include patients.
To help spark discussions of how residents can negotiate this new […]