Blog.
01/26/2015
Great Writing through Analogy
Every once in a while on my blog, I like to highlight great writing. In part, I guess, because my own writing has yet to rise to such a level. Anyways, here’s Robert Ballard in the Smithsonian trying to help … Continue reading →
by Keisha Ray, Ph.D.
Every year the National Football League (NFL) makes between an estimated $7 billion- $9 billion making it the most profitable American professional sports league. The players are arguably what attracts most people to the game and how the league makes its money, whether that be through game attendance or the sale of player related merchandise. The mental health of current players and especially retired players has come under a magnifying glass within the past decade. Past players and the families of past (and deceased) players have accused the NFL of mishandling players with concussions. Four thousand-five hundred players filed a lawsuit against the NFL accusing the organization of ignoring or not properly treating players who have received concussions while playing football and that this negligence led to their diagnoses of Lou Gehrig’s disease, dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, heightened and uncontrollable aggression, Parkinson’s disease, and other neurological disorders and cognitive impairments.…
In January 2014, a New Mexico trial court ruled that patients have a fundamental right to aid in dying under the state constitution.This afternoon, the New Mexico Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments in the case, captioned as
KATHERINE MORRIS, M.D., AROOP MANGALIK, M.D., and AJA RIGGS, Plaintiffs-Appellees
vs.
KARI BRANDENBURG, in her official capacity as District Attorney for Bernalillo County, New Mexico, and GARY KING, in his official capacity as Attorney General of the State of New Mexico, Defendants-Appellants
A number of amici are also involved:
- Attorneys for Disability Rights
- ALS Association NM Chapter
- NM Psychological Association
- American Medical Women’s Association
- American Medical Students Association
- NM Public Health Association
The 5th International Conference on Advance Care Planning and End-of-Life Care (ACPEL) will be held from 9 to 12 September 2015 in Munich, Germany. The Call for Abstracts is open until 15 Feb 2015.
Already booked sessions include:
Does the plan...
01/23/2015
Patient Modesty: Volume 71
I would like to start out this Volume 71 with a basic question to help define what is understood as physical modesty and how it applies to this issue as experienced by patients within the medical system. Is modesty of an individual only related to how ...
01/23/2015
The Power of Free
The Atlantic recently reproduced a figure showing just how much people like things when they are free. Specifically, they looked at health interventions and show that people are more likely to take up these interventions, or products, when they don’t … Continue reading →
by Craig M. Klugman
The United States has passed a milestone, the first year of the Affordable Care Act’s insurance mandate. This is the requirement that all U.S. residents have health insurance whether through an employer, an organization, or via the insurance marketplaces. Opponents of the ACA (also known as “Obamacare”) feared that this act would destroy the country by decimating the economy, creating a federal government takeover of healthcare, forcing employers to drop coverage, workers quitting who no longer need their employer-based health insurance, and companies cutting workers to stay below minimum thresholds.
The results of the first year are positive.…
<p style="line-height: 19.0400009155273px;"><span style="line-height: 19.0400009155273px;">Although life-saving, cancer treatments (e.g. radiation, chemotherapy, and surgery) can also lead to infertility in both women and men. Established reproductive technologies for women and men like gamete freezing and embryo freezing allow cancer patients to preserve their fertility in case they want to become biological parents in the future. </span></p>
<p style="line-height: 19.0400009155273px;">Unfortunately, patients are frequently not adequately informed and sometimes not informed at all about fertility preservation. Some oncologists don’t consider fertility preservation to be an important issue, as they are more focused on saving the patients’ lives and see fertility preservation as a secondary consideration. Research has shown that even when oncologists refer their patients for fertility preservation they often do so based on social factors (they are more likely to refer wealthy, white, heterosexual, married patients) rather than purely on medical indications. Even when health care providers discuss fertility preservation with patients, many patients say that once they heard the word “cancer” as a diagnosis, they didn’t absorb much else from their initial conversation with their provider. </p>
<p style="line-height: 19.0400009155273px;"><strong style="line-height: 19.0400009155273px; color: #34405b; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">The Alden March Bioethics Institute offers a Master of Science in Bioethics, a Doctorate of Professional Studies in Bioethics, and Graduate Certificates in Clinical Ethics and Clinical Ethics Consultation. For more information on AMBI's online graduate programs, please visit our <a style="text-decoration: underline; color: #000099;" href="http://www.amc.edu/Academic/bioethics/index.cfm">website</a>.</strong><span style="line-height: 19.0400009155273px; color: #34405b; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> </span></p>
01/23/2015
Death Test: Criteria for Screening and Triaging to Appropriate ALternative Care (CRISTAL)
Australian critical care physician Ken Hillman and health services researcher Magnolia Cardona-Morrell have just published a new checklist in BMJ Supportive and Palliative Care: "Development of a Tool for Defining and Identifying the Dying Patient in Hospital: Criteria for Screening and Triaging to Appropriate aLternative care (CriSTAL)."The goal is to develop an evidence-based screening tool to identify elderly patients at the end of life and quantify the risk of death in hospital or soon after discharge. The Telegraph calls it a "death test."
This should minimize prognostic uncertainty and avoid potentially harmful and futile treatments. After all, an unambiguous checklist may assist clinicians in reducing uncertainty patients who are likely to die within the next 3 months and help initiate transparent conversations with families and patients about end-of-life care.
Today California Senate Bill SB 128 was introduced. It is described in the press as being comparable to Oregon’s law. Its status can be followed here. Apparently (I am betraying my weak knowledge of the civics of my home state here) it is first referred to the California Senate Rules Committee for committee assignment. I have just downloaded the text and have not studied... // Read More »
AJOB
Target Articles:
Transferring Morality to Human–Nonhuman Chimeras
Ethical Review of Health Systems Research in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Conceptual Exploration
Correspondence:
Changing the Discourse on Health Systems Research: Response to Open Peer Commentaries on “Ethical Review of Health Systems Research in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Conceptual Exploration”