Bioethics.net

Apr 14, 2012

Pre-Med’s New Priorities: Heart and Soul and Social Science (New York Times)

Prof. Piers J. Hale knew something was up when his students at the University of Oklahoma were clamoring this spring to get into his medical ethics class, which was formerly populated largely by social science majors. What led to the sudden burst of popularity, he discovered, were plans by the Association of American Medical Colleges to revise the medical school admissions test to incorporate a hefty dose of social science.

Apr 05, 2012

The New Face of Health Care: Why Nurses Are in Such High Demand (The Atlantic)

The national conversation about health care reform focuses relentlessly on cost reduction. While bending the cost curve is extremely important, improving quality is also essential — but sometimes downplayed — in today’s reform equation. Grappling with quality challenges has attracted a new breed of health care leaders: physician and nurse executives.

Apr 04, 2012

Doctor Panels Recommend Fewer Tests for Patients (NY Times)

In a move likely to alter treatment standards in hospitals and doctors’ offices nationwide, a group of nine medical specialty boards plans to recommend on Wednesday that doctors perform 45 common tests and procedures less often, and to urge patients to question these services if they are offered. Eight other specialty boards are preparing to follow suit with additional lists of procedures their members should perform far less often.

Apr 03, 2012

When is it OK for a doctor to hug a patient? (Chicago Sun Times)

Acknowledging the uniqueness and delicateness of the patient-physician relationship as well as the emotionally-charged situations that can happen in a clinical setting, Kuczewski (pronounced Kuh-chev-ski) maintains it’s imperative that the person who initiates the hug be the less-powerful person and that the hug — or sign of support — seem natural and unforced.

Apr 03, 2012

Study Says DNA’s Power to Predict Illness Is Limited (NY Times)

Apr 03, 2012

Inside Medicine: Should care in foreign countries differ? (Sacramento Bee)

In the United States, we have 2.3 doctors for every 1,000 people, but in places like Tanzania, Africa, there is only one doctor for every 20,000 people. Our medical students and residents are increasingly committed to going to economically poor nations to volunteer and provide health care. They are willing to live in very primitive conditions in exchange for having a chance to do things in those countries that they could not do back home.

Mar 19, 2012

The Psychology of Health Care (The Atlantic)

There’s something different, psychologically different, about health care. Debates about reforming the way we get medical treatment (and the ways we pay for it) can get a bit otherworldly (to my mind) if they try to pretend that this difference doesn’t exist. Sheer economic and public policy reasoning just doesn’t take some very important things into account.

Mar 16, 2012

When ICU beds are scarce, doctors' goals change (Chicago Tribune)

When hospitals are short on beds in the intensive care unit, doctors are more likely to switch from life-saving care to end-of-life care, a new Canadian study shows. But it’s not clear whether that means patients die any sooner, researchers report in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Even if they do, that’s not necessarily a bad thing, said Dr. Scott Halpern, a critical care expert at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, who wrote a commentary on the findings.

Mar 15, 2012

Getting Doctors to Think About Costs (NY Times)

A student asked him just how much a CT scan cost, and he shifted uncomfortably in his seat and shrugged. “I don’t really know,” he said, “but I do know that we can’t just think about the patient anymore.” He took a deep breath before continuing, “We are now being forced to consider costs.” That was 20 years ago, when the managed care movement was first in the headlines. Today his lesson still rings true, as doctors continue to struggle to reconcile cost consciousness with quality care. And doctors-to-be are not getting much help in learning how to do so.

Mar 15, 2012

When doctors - not pharmacists - dispense meds (Philadelphia Inquirer)

The American Medical Association Code of Ethics notes that “Physicians may dispense drugs within their office practices provided such dispensing primarily benefits the patients.” It’s the medication safety issue that worries me.