Ethics Talk

This month, AMA Journal of Ethics theme editor Abraar Karan, MD, and MPH candidate at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, interviewed Agnes Bingowaho, MD, PhD, about practical challenges Rwanda overcame and ethical questions it faced while motivating better health outcomes for its people. Dr. Binagwaho is the minister of health of Rwanda.

This month, AMA Journal of Ethics theme editor Marguerite Reid Schneider, a fourth-year medical student at University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, interviewed Srijan Sen, MD, PhD, about how mental health care and medical culture can be changed to benefit medical trainees. Dr. Sen is an associate professor of psychiatry at University of Michigan Medical School.

This month, AMA Journal of Ethics theme editor Karel-Bart Celie, a second-year medical student at Columbia University School of Medicine, interviewed Joseph J. Fins, MD, about the work of ethics committees and consultants as they pursue professionalization and respond to changes in health care organization and practice. Dr. Fins is the E. William Davis, Jr., MD, Professor of Medical Ethics and a p...

This month, AMA Journal of Ethics theme editor Emily Johnson, a fourth-year medical student at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, interviewed Susan Mizner, JD, about some merits, drawbacks, and alternatives to guardianship. Susan Mizner is disability counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union.

This month, AMA Journal of Ethics theme editor Arina Evgenievna Chesnokova, MPH, a third-year medical student at Baylor College of Medicine, interviewed Megan Sandel, MD, MPH about how physicians can establish partnerships with attorneys. Dr. Sandel is the medical director of the National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership and addresses the need for and barriers to medical-legal partnerships.

This month, AMA Journal of Ethics theme editor Natasha Dolgin, an MD/PhD candidate at the University of Massachusetts School of Medicine, interviewed Dorry Segev, MD, PhD, about organ allocation policy and geographic disparities in access, possible ways to maximize equity, and advice physicians should give their patients between policy changes. Dr. Segev is an associate professor of surgery at Joh...

This month, AMA Journal of Ethics theme editor Trisha Paul, a second-year medical student at the University of Michigan Medical School, interviewed Kelly Parent about what makes patient- and family-centered care an inclusive approach to health care delivery and how this approach is being implemented. Kelly Parent is the patient- and family-centered care program specialist for quality and safety at...

This month, AMA Journal of Ethics theme editor Cynthia Tsay, MPhil, a second-year medical student at the Yale School of Medicine, interviewed Robert Levine, MD, about changes in clinical research guidelines, problems with IRB documentation, and the top ethical challenges facing clinical researchers today. Dr. Levine is a professor of medicine at the Yale School of Medicine and a Hastings Center fe...

This month, AMA Journal of Ethics editor-in-chief Audiey Kao, MD, PhD, interviewed Wendy Levinson, MD, about the efforts of the Choosing Wisely initiative to foster cultural change in medicine cross-nationally by stimulating dialogue about overuse of tests and treatments. Dr. Levinson is professor of medicine at the University of Toronto and leads Choosing Wisely Canada and International.

This month, AMA Journal of Ethics theme editor Nikhil A. Patel, MS, a fourth-year medical student at the Mayo Medical School, interviewed Joia Mukherjee, MD, MPH, about Partners In Health's mission to strengthen low-income countries' health care systems and lessons learned from the Ebola crisis. Dr. Mukherjee is the chief medical officer of Partners In Health and an associate professor at Harvard...

This month, AMA Journal of Ethics theme editor W. Miller Johnstone III, MD, PhD, a resident in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Buffalo, interviewed Kate M. Lally, MD, about patient-centered management of end-of-life care, the unique care needs of women with advanced gynecologic cancers, and how to prepare medical students and residents to hold difficult conversations with patients....

This month, AMA Journal of Ethics editor-in-chief Audiey Kao, MD, PhD, interviewed Peter A. Ubel, MD, about factors contributing to the high cost of health care, how to bend the cost curve, and the compatibility of cost containment and profit seeking. Dr. Ubel is the Dennis T. McLawhorn University Professor at the Duke University Fuqua School of Business.

AMA Journal of Ethics theme editor Amanda Xi, MD, a transitional year resident at Henry Ford Hospital, interviewed Donald M. Berwick, MD, shortly before the Supreme Court's decision in King versus Burwell. Dr. Berwick discussed progress in meeting the health care goals of the ACA and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and next steps for improving patient care. A former head of the Centers fo...

This month, AMA Journal of Ethics theme editor, Gaurav Jay Dhiman, a third-year medical student at the University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine, interviewed Jonathan D. Moreno, PhD, on the role of bioethicists in military research and ethical issues in research on people with disabilities. Dr. Moreno is the David and Lyn Silfen University Professor of Ethics at the University of Pe...

This month, AMA Journal of Ethics theme editor, Nadi N. Kaonga, a medical student and predoctoral candidate at Tufts University in Boston, interviewed Gordon D. Schiff, MD, on reframing professional boundaries in the patient-physician relationship. Dr. Schiff, author of "Crossing Boundaries—Violation or Obligation?," is a primary care physician and activist and a safety and quality improvement res...

This month, AMA Journal of Ethics theme editor Kathleen K. Miller, MD, a first-year resident in pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, interviewed Deborah R. Barnbaum, PhD, on the theory of mind and its implications for treatment of people with autism. Dr. Barnbaum is chair of the Department of Philosophy at Kent State University and coordinator of the department's Health Care Ethics p...

AMA Journal of Ethics editor Audiey Kao, MD, PhD, interviewed Kenneth Sands, MD, about harms to patient dignity caused by unintentional disrespect and about initiatives for measuring, tracking, and correcting such harms. Dr. Sands is chief quality officer at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

This month, AMA Journal of Ethics theme editor Matthew Edwards, a third-year medical student at the University of Texas Medical Branch School of Medicine, interviewed Douglas R. Bacon, MD, MA, on the development of anesthesiology and the "balanced anesthesia" approach. Dr. Bacon is chairman of the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

AMA Journal of Ethics editor Audiey Kao, MD, PhD, interviewed Richard Pan, MD, MPH, about how, as a physician and legislator, he seeks to protect public health in light of recurrent outbreaks of vaccine-preventable infectious diseases. Dr. Pan is a pediatrician and California state senator who has contributed to community development and increasing oversight of government health programs.

This month, AMA Journal of Ethics theme editor Marta Michalska-Smith, a second-year medical student at the Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, interviewed Linda Brubaker, MD, MS, and Marc G. Kuczewski, PhD, about Stritch's admissions policy welcoming applications from students of DACA status and the challenges and promise of implementing this strategy. Dr. Brubaker is dean of the...

This month, Virtual Mentor theme editor Jordan P. Amadio, MD, MBA, a senior neurosurgery resident at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, interviewed Paul Root Wolpe, PhD, about the ethical import of new technologies and the practical import of the White House Brain Initiative for neurosurgeons and neurosurgeons in training. Dr. Wolpe is the Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Bioe...

This month, Virtual Mentor theme editor Vinod Nambudiri, MD, MBA, a resident in internal medicine and dermatology in the Harvard Combined Medicine-Dermatology Residency Training Program, interviewed Naomi Fried, PhD, about telemedicine's regulatory challenges and the opportunities it presents for innovation in health care delivery and medical education. Dr. Fried is chief innovation officer at Bos...

This month, Virtual Mentor interviewed Drew Pinsky, MD, assistant professor of psychiatry at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California and media personality who has been talking to and educating the public about love, sex, and relationships for more than 25 years. We spoke with him about how he got his start in media, the sex addiction diagnosis, and the ethical challeng...

This month, Virtual Mentor issue editor Rashmi Kudesia interviewed Sarah S. Richardson about the emerging field of "maternal effects," that is, the study of the influences of a pregnant woman's behavior, exposures, and physiology on her offspring's future health and development. Dr. Richardson is associate professor of the history of science and of studies of women, gender, and sexuality at Harvar...

In the September 2014 issue on physicians as agents of social change, Dr. Audiey Kao, editor-in-chief of Virtual Mentor interviewed Dr. Rajiv Shah, administrator of the United States Agency for International Development or USAID. We spoke about the mission of USAID and how being a physician informs his role as the administrator.