Ethics Talk

Mental illnesses can affect some patients' capacity to make decisions. Even so, many of these patients retain insight and should be invited to engage in shared decision making about their health care. Dr Laura Guidry-Grimes joins us to discuss how clinicians can assess whether and which decisions can be shared with people experiencing mental illness.

Alice Wong and Dr Joseph Stramondo join us on this special episode of Ethics Talk to discuss how perspectives from the disability community can help us think more powerfully about quality of life, resource allocation, and other ethical challenges arising in pandemics.

In this special edition of Ethics Talk, Dr Uché Blackstock joins us to discuss COVID-19 morbidity and mortality outcomes inequity by race, and what needs to change now and post-pandemic.

In this episode of Ethics Talk, surgeon Dr Sara Scarlet and anesthesiologist Dr Patricia Doerr discuss their perspectives on surgeon-anesthesiologist relationships.

In this special edition of Ethics Talk, journal editor-in-chief, Dr Audiey Kao, discusses the ethical challenges, including resource scarcity and medical worker obligations, that arise during pandemics with public health expert Dr Matthew Wynia.

What should clinicians do to change organizational cultures that negatively influence care they can deliver to patients? This month on Ethics Talk, Tara Montgomery and Dr Zackary Berger discuss how to identify and respond to health care organizational cultural influences on service delivery and quality.

In this episode, transgender advocate and author Ryan Sallans discusses his experience accessing health care as a transman and offers a guide for caring well for anyone with a cervix.

Good epidemic responses require cross-disciplinary collaboration. Dr David Heymann talks about serving in an Ebola containment campaign and Dr Christy Rentmeester explains what clinicians should know about colonialism to promote health equity.

How should we prepare for rapid advancement of gene editing technology? This month on Ethics Talk, Dr Sean C. McConnell provides an introduction to gene editing and CRISPR technology and Scott J. Schweikart discusses what prudent governance requires.

In reconstructive transplantation, quality of life assessments incorporate many variables. Dr Katrina Bramstedt and Dr Ana Iltis discuss the development of QoL assessment tools to help patient-subjects considering reconstructive transplantation.

Decision making in health care demands that we balance multiple considerations, like quality of life, statistics, and how different options could affect others. Dr Brian Zikmund-Fisher shares his own experience as a patient and introduces how decision science can help us navigate ethically complex health decisions.

Health professions students  often participate in global health outreach programs to benefit resource-poor areas of the world and to gain valuable clinical experience. Ethical questions arise when the sustainability and educational value of these programs is questioned. This episode of Ethics Talk features John Straw and Cat Quinn of Concern America, an alternative to academic-based global health...

What makes a drug's price fair? In this episode of Ethics Talk, Dr. Aaron S. Kesselheim helped us talk through drug pricing: what makes it "fair," how drugs are priced the way they are, and what some current legislative and market-based methods for curbing rising drug prices could look like.  

When a patient is unable to express their own wishes and does not have a surrogate or advance directive, how should clinicians determine the best course of care? This month on Ethics Talk, Scott Schweikart provides an overview of 3 of the most common approaches to caring for unrepresented patients, and Dr David Ozar explains some of the policy challenges facing health professionals who care for th...

When a patient's preference  expresses injustice , how should clinicians respond? This month on Ethics Talk, Dr Fatima Cody Stanford discusses  a delicate tension between  preserv ing  relationship s   with biased patients and preserving one's own dignity,  and Dr Kimani Paul-Emile  describes how organizations   can  support clinicians who experience bias ,  discrimination , or harassment .  

Evolving indications for last-resort life support technologies pose unique challenges. When should ECMO be started, and when should it be stopped?  W e sp oke  with Dr. Elizabeth Sonntag, Dr. Daniel Brauner, and Dr. Nicholas  Braus  about ECMO and end-of-life care.  

What are key factors for successful partnerships between clinicians, health care organizations, and communities? This month on Ethics Talk, we discuss strategies for building trust and engaging effectively with Dr. Daniel Skinner, Dr. Berkeley Franz, Dr. Kelly Kelleher, and Robin Hacke.

As p hysicians interact  more and more with AI  in their clinical practices, how should medical education  evolve ? This month on Ethics Talk, we sit down with Dr. Kimberly  Lomis  and Christopher Khoury to discuss how educators  can adapt  to rapid chang e in  an  ethically  complex field.

Undocumented patients are a vulnerable population, since they often lack access to health insurance and can be afraid to present for care. This month on Ethics Talk, we discuss challenges in caring for undocumented patients with Dr. Mark Kuczewski, Scott Schweikart, and Dr. Nancy Berlinger.

Labels commonly used in clinical settings, like "elective" or "therapeutic" influence how we think about the justifiability of abortion. We talk with Professor Katie Watson and Dr Maryl Sackeim about how the language clinicians use to describe abortion can affect patients' experiences and even cause harm.

In a special mini-episode of Ethics Talk, we explore the implications of a new proposed immigration policy that could have broad effects on immigrants' health with Dr. Rachel Fabi, explain why clinicians and students should consider submitting a public comment, and outline best practices for weighing in.

We live in a time when an array of information is available at the fingertips of anyone with access to a computer, but more information doesn't necessarily mean more understanding. False beliefs about health care can be quickly and widely perpetuated online, with serious consequences. This month on Ethics Talk, we spoke with Dr. Jennifer McCormick, Dr. Albert Ko, and Dr. Diane Griffin about why it...

When patients look for strategies to improve their overall health, diet and nutrition are often a logical place to start—after all, what we consume has enormous impact on our susceptibility to disease and disability. But health care professionals don't always have the time or expertise to address nutrition effectively in a clinical encounter, and might not know how to respond to broader issues aro...

The National Institutes of Health recently launched their "All of Us" Initiative, with the goal of compiling detailed health profiles of 1 million Americans. Gathering so much sensitive information raises important ethical questions about consent, privacy, and inclusivity. This month on Ethics Talk, we discussed strategies for protecting participants and ensuring that diverse communities are repre...

In acute care settings, it can be challenging for clinicians to treat patients who might benefit from minimal interventions as the end of their lives approach. They also might not know how to help families make the most of remaining time with loved ones, or begin a transition from hoping for more life to mourning and grieving immediately following someone's death. This month on Ethics Talk, we spo...