Hot Topics: Conflict of Interest
by Craig Klugman, Ph.D.
In a news item reported in Rolling Stone, NPR, and The Houston Chronicle, the medical director of a coastal Texas nursing home used his political connections to get enough hydroxychloroquine to begin his own “observational” trials—minus a control group, minus informed consent, minus informing anyone.…
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Editorials appear in cooperation with the American Journal of Bioethics. This article and its associated pieces can be found here.…
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“Examining ethical issues in TV medical dramas”
Jump to The Resident (Season 2; Episode 16): Money corrupts, patient autonomy; Jump to The Good Doctor (Season 2; Episode 17): Reporting suspicions of abuse; Jump to New Amsterdam (Season 1; Episode 15): Committing fraud to live, Who protects the elderly
The Resident (Season 2; Episode 16): Money corrupts; patient autonomy
Henry’s mom wants to go public with the damage that the Qouvadis vagus nerve stimulator did to her son.…
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by Craig Klugman, Ph.D.
This week was a quiet one as many regular dramas were pre-empted and others did not present ethical dilemmas.…
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by Craig Klugman, Ph.D.
Jump to The Resident (Season 1; Episode 11): Listening to patients; Jump to The Good Doctor (Season 2: Episode 12): Paying the Piper; Jump to New Amsterdam (Season 1; Episode 12): Impaired Colleagues, Robin Hood docs;Jump to Chicago Med (Season 4; Episode 12): Maternal/Fetal Conflict and Giving Bad News
The Resident (Season 1; Episode 11): Listening to patients
Marisol, a woman in her early 30s, comes to the ED complaining of abdominal pain, with a history of an ectopic pregnancy (lost her right ovary) and a stillbirth after a C-section.…
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by Craig Klugman, Ph.D.
Jump to The Resident (Season 2; Episode 10): What would you do doctor?a>;Jump to The Good Doctor (Season 1; Episode 11): Ignoring patient rights; unnecessary risks; crisis planning; Jump to New Amsterdam (Season 1; Episode 11): Superutilizers and racism; Jump to Chicago Med (Season 4; Episode 11): Triage, gestational surrogacy conflicts; ends justifies the means
The Resident (Season 2; Episode 10): What would you do doctor?
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by Craig Klugman, Ph.D.
Threats to privacy and confidentiality swirl around. Each day the newspaper seems to report on stories that show the erosion of this fundamental human right.…
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by Craig Klugman, Ph.D.
I recently received an email from a community organization which asked the following question: “Are there any ethical issues with our community health plan selling its medical records to a private company?”…
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by Lisa Kearns, MS, MA, and Arthur Caplan, PhD
A few months ago we called for a new conflict of interest (COI) disclosure policy.…
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by Craig Klugman, Ph.D.
“Exploring ethical issues in TV medical dramas”
Jump to The Resident (Season 2; Episode 5): Buying Thought Leaders and Handsy Docs; Jump to New Amsterdam (Season 1; Episode 5): Gun shootings; Jump to Chicago Med (Season 4; Episode 5): Genetic secrets and duty to inform
Resident (Season 2; Episode 5): Buying Thought Leaders and Handsy Docs
Bell negotiates a deal with a new start-up medical device company: For a substantial discount, he will make the company the sole source of medical devices at the hospital.…
Full ArticleA Content Analysis of Patient Advocacy Organization Policies Addressing Institutional Conflicts of Interest
Innovative Practice, Clinical Research, and the Ethical Advancement of Medicine
Expanding, Augmenting, and Operationalizing Ethical and Regulatory Considerations for Using Social Media Platforms in Research and Health Care
Comparison of philosophical concerns between professionals and the public regarding two psychiatric treatments
Conflicts of interest policies for authors, peer reviewers, and editors of bioethics journals
“A Little ELF, Please?” The Electronic Long-Form COI Disclosure Statement (ELFCOI)
Is it important to disclose how treatments are selected in clinical research and clinical care?
Bringing Transparency to Medicine: Exploring Physicians' Views and Experiences of the Sunshine Act
Tracking U.S. Professional Athletes: The Ethics of Biometric Technologies
“It is imperative that governments are explicit about the ethical commitments that support any vaccination certification policy. Motivations rooted in neocapitalism and individual liberalism are at odds with public health ethics.”
Full ArticleHow is medical ethics debated in court? “If a Texas court ruling is allowed to stand, the state’s hospitals and doctors will have no room to make end-of-life care decisions based on independent medical ethics or individual conscience.”
Full ArticleDo we have an ethical responsibility to communicate COVID-19 diagnoses for the purpose of collective health security? This recent piece explores why some may feel motivated to keep their own diagnoses a secret and what effect that may have on the pandemic.
Full ArticleResearchers conducted a randomized controlled trial of whether COI disclosures affect perceived research quality in real manuscripts in a real world editorial process, as assessed by critical gatekeepers in the dissemination of science: peer reviewers.
Full ArticleDr. José Baselga, the hospital’s chief medical officer, stepped down days after a report by ProPublica and the New York Times that he failed to disclose millions of dollars in payments from the health care and drug industry in research articles.
Full ArticleHappy 10 Minutes, a Chinese government campaign that encouraged schoolchildren to exercise for 10 minutes a day, would seem a laudable step toward improving public health in a nation struggling with alarming rates of childhood obesity.
But the initiative and other official Chinese efforts that emphasized exercise as the best way to lose weight were notable for what they didn’t mention: the importance of cutting back on the calorie-laden junk foods and sugary beverages that have become ubiquitous in the world’s second largest economy.
Full ArticleSix months after halting a study of moderate drinking that was underwritten by donations from the alcohol industry, the National Institutes of Health outlined a series of steps to prevent similar conflicts of interest and to safeguard the integrity of its research and its reputation.
In a report issued on Thursday, N.I.H. officials said its 27 institutes must evaluate all current research projects that receive private donor support for conflicts of interest of the kind that compromised the alcohol trial. The institute directors are to report their findings to Dr. Francis Collins, director of N.I.H., early next year.
Full ArticleLast month’s announcement claiming the birth of the world’s first genome-edited babies has sparked a furore over how to regulate this cutting-edge technology (see Nature 563, 607–608; 2018, and Nature564, 5; 2018). In our view, piling up scientist-led conferences modelled on Asilomar in 1975 (see Nature 526, 293–294; 2015) without any clear consensus is futile.
Full ArticleThe Sarah Cannon Research Institute, based in Nashville, received nearly $8 million in payments from drug companies on behalf of its president for clinical operations, Dr. Howard Burris, largely for research work. Dozens of his articles published in prestigious medical journals did not include the required disclosures of those payments and relationships.
Full ArticleA Chinese scientist recently claimed he had produced the world’s first gene-edited babies, setting off a global firestorm. If true — the scientist has not yet published data that would confirm it — his actions would be a sensational breach of international scientific conventions. Although gene editing holds promise to potentially correct dangerous disease-causing mutations and treat some medical conditions, there are many safety and ethical concerns about editing human embryos.
Here are answers to some of the numerous questions swirling around this development.
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