Ethics Talk

Chaplains provide spiritual and religious support to patients, families, and clinicians, but they also serve as key communicators, helping mediate between patients and medical teams. This month on Ethics Talk, we spoke with Rabbi Susan Harris, the director of chaplaincy at Boston Children's Hospital, about the strategies that chaplains use to help patients and families articulate their goals and n...

A patient with a severe burn injury doesn't just need physical care and support to recover – suffering such injuries can also create significant psychological and emotional challenges. This month on Ethics Talk, we sit down with Dr. Monica Gerrek, a burn ethicist, and Andrea Rubin, a burn survivor, to explore how burn teams can support patients' autonomy in the aftermath of their injuries. We also...

Today's modern trauma system is a relatively new phenomenon, and trauma surgeons are constantly responding to the changing needs of the populations they serve. This month on Ethics Talk, we talk with Dr. David Hoyt about the historic evolution of the trauma system from its roots in care on the battlefield, and explore how trauma surgeons are responding to the country's aging population through ger...

Surgeons can have an impact on patients and communities that goes well beyond the operating room, but their ability -- and obligation -- to make a broader impact isn't always clear. This month on Ethics Talk, we hear from Dr. Shane Morrison and Cedar Neary about the meaning of surgical justice and how plastic surgeons can use the concept to deliver better care to their patients, in particular with...

As media outlets have documented over the past year, maternal mortality is higher in the U.S. than in any developed country, and there are alarming racial disparities between black and white mothers. This month on Ethics Talk, we talk with Dorothy Roberts, Nadia Sawicki, and Dr. Stacie Geller about the history behind today's crisis in maternal mortality, how common ways of thinking about maternal...

What can comic art about illness and health care offer patients and families as they navigate health challenges? This month on Ethics Talk, we talk with Brian Fies and Phoebe Potts, the authors of graphic novels about their experiences with health care, about how comic art is a unique and powerful medium for communicating about difficult and emotional encounters with illness and health care.

Is violence a problem for criminal justice enforcement to handle, or is it a health problem to be addressed by clinicians and other health care professionals? This month on Ethics Talk, we feature a special interview with Dr. Gary Slutkin, the author of an article in the January issue about how the health sector can help reduce violence by treating it as a contagion, about what it means to think a...

Global climate change has been called the greatest health threat of the twenty-first century, and its effects are already being felt in communities around the world. Clinicians have a central role to play in combating health risks related to climate change and raising awareness about its health effects, but how can individual health professionals tackle such an enormous problem? This month on Ethi...

The concept of "co-creation," borrowed from the business sector, integrates patients into the process of developing health care products and systems, so that their perspective and input can ultimately inform the care they receive. It's a simple but revolutionary idea, and it's being applied across health care sectors – including in the way health care is designed. This month on Ethics Talk, we tal...

The Flint water crisis raised questions about the extent to which health care professionals considered environmental health to be part of their scope of practice – and whether clinicians were sufficiently attuned to the voices of residents. This month, we are joined by Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, who describes how clinicians worked to expose the water crisis in Flint, and how health professions studen...

Clinicians have an ethical obligation to provide high-quality care to incarcerated and justice-involved patients, which means being knowledgeable and empathic about challenges these patients face. For a patient perspective, AMA Journal of Ethics editor Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux talks with Troy Williams about what it's like to seek medical care in a prison. We also discuss the benefits of incorporatin...

Sometimes, life-saving treatments have serious negative consequences. This month, AMA Journal of Ethics editor Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux discusses strategies for communicating about iatrogenic outcomes with Dr. Robert Nelson, a senior pediatric ethicist with the Food and Drug Administration, with a particular focus on how to enlist parents as allies in high-stress pediatric cases. Later in the episod...

This month, AMA Journal of Ethics theme editor James M. Wilkins, MD, a geriatric psychiatry fellow at Partners Healthcare, interviewed Beth Soltzberg, MBA, MSW, about innovative ways to promote health and social engagement among people living with dementia. Soltzberg is director of the Alzheimer's/Related Family Disorders Support Program at Jewish Family and Children's Service.

This month, AMA Journal of Ethics theme editor Subha Perni, MD, a recent graduate of the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, interviewed Elizabeth Epstein, PhD, RN, about strategies for understanding and address moral distress in clinical settings. Dr. Epstein is an associate professor of nursing at the University of Virginia.

This month, AMA Journal of Ethics theme editor Renee Mao, a third-year medical student at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, interviewed Dr. Tarris Rosell, PhD, DMin, MDiv, about strategies for incorporating spiritual care into oncology. Dr. Rosell is clinical professor in the Department of History and Philosophy of Medicine at the University of Kansas.

This month, AMA Journal of Ethics theme editor James Aluri, a third-year medical student at Johns Hopkins University, interviewed Dr. Autumn Fiester, PhD, about strategies for defusing "difficult" patient-clinician relationships. Dr. Fiester is assistant chair for education and training in the Division of Medical Ethics at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine.

This month, AMA Journal of Ethics theme editor Zujaja Tauqeer, a third-year medical student at Harvard Medical School, interviewed Donald A. Barr, MD, PhD, about caring for patients with limited English language and health literacy schools. Dr. Barr is a professor in the Department of Pediatrics and the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University.

This month, AMA Journal of Ethics theme editor William R. Smith, a third-year medical student at Emory University School of Medicine and a doctoral candidate in philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, interviewed James Mohr, PhD, about how the medical profession has been regulated—and regulated itself—over the course of American history. Dr. Mohr is College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished P...

This month, AMA Journal of Ethics theme editor Terri Davis, a third-year MD student at West Virginia University School of Medicine, interviewed Ranit Mishori, MD, about how to respond to incidents of suspected human trafficking in health care settings. Dr. Mishori is a professor of family medicine and the director of the Department of Family Medicine's Global Health Initiatives at Georgetown Unive...

This month, AMA Journal of Ethics theme editor Jacquelyn Nestor, a fifth-year MD/PhD student at Hofstra-Northwell School of Medicine, interviewed Allen Buchanan, PhD, about how we can safely explore cutting-edge biomedical enhancements. Dr. Buchanan is the James B. Duke Professor of Philosophy at Duke University.

This month, AMA Journal of Ethics theme editor Cameron Waldman, a second-year medical student at Albany Medical College, interviewed Aron Janssen, MD, about how healthcare professionals can better serve their transgender patients. Dr. Janssen, clinical assistant professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at NYU School of Medicine and the director of the Gender and Sexuality Service at NYU Langon...

This month, AMA Journal of Ethics theme editor Sarah Waliany, a fourth-year medical student at Stanford University School of Medicine, interviewed Louise Andrew, MD, JD, about mental health challenges for physicians and medical students and some strategies for colleagues to assist and intervene. Dr. Andrew is a fifth-generation physician attorney who deals with physicians in many kinds of crisis s...

This month, AMA Journal of Ethics theme editor Colleen Farrell, a fourth-year medical student at Harvard Medical School, interviewed Lachlan Forrow, MD, about the benefits of interprofessional collaboration and the importance of biopsychosocial approaches to patient care. Dr. Forrow is an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

This month, AMA Journal of Ethics theme editor Margaret Cocks, MD, PhD, a third-year resident at Johns Hopkins Hospital, interviewed Theonia Boyd, MD, about ethical issues pathologists face when conducting autopsies and obtaining specimens. Dr. Boyd is an associate professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School.