Talk to Your Doctor: Direct-to-Consumer Advertising of Prescription Drugs, Part 3

August 13, 2010

By Ishmeal Bradley

 Faculty Peer Reviewed

In the first two parts of this article, we explored the historical and legal contexts of direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising, the effects of these ads on prescribing behavior, and the economic incentives to advertise. In this final…

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Posted in Ethics

Talk to Your Doctor: Direct-to-Consumer Advertising of Prescription Drugs, Part 2

August 6, 2010

By Ishmeal Bradley

Faculty Peer Reviewed

 In the first installment, we looked at the history behind consumer advertising of prescription drugs. We also explored the concept of commercial free speech and why this form of advertising is legal. To fully appreciate the…

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Posted in Ethics

Talk to Your Doctor: Direct-to-Consumer Advertising of Prescription Drugs, Part 1

July 30, 2010

By Ishmeal Bradley, MD

Faculty Peer Reviewed

 Advertising is everywhere. That should come as no surprise to anyone who has lived in modern America. It is impossible to turn on the television, ride the subway, or even sort through the daily mail…

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Posted in Ethics

Revisiting the USPSTF Breast Cancer Screening Guidelines: Ethics, and Patient Responsibilities

May 6, 2010

David Shabtai

Faculty Peer Reviewed

 In a bold move, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recently changed their breast cancer screening guidelines – recommending beginning screening at age 50 and even then only every other year until age 75. Bold, because the…

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Posted in Class Act, Ethics, Heme/Onc

Physician Assisted Suicide: A Spiritual Challenge

April 30, 2010

Commentary on  last week’s “Physician Assisted Suicide—Is now the time?” by Antonella Surbone, MD PhD FACP, Ethics Editor, Clinical Correlations.

Last week’s piece on Physician Assisted Suicide (PAS) by Dr. Juliana Eng addresses in simple and clear terms an issue that, at times,…

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Posted in Ethics

Physician-assisted Suicide – Is Now the Time?

April 24, 2010

Juliana Eng MD

Several months ago, the U.K. courts ordered Ken Starmer, Director of Public Prosecutions, to delineate the conditions under which his office would be likely or unlikely to prosecute people who helped friends or relatives kill themselves.  This list…

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Posted in Ethics

The Ethics of Electronic Health Records

January 15, 2010

emrJohn J. Mercuri

Faculty peer reviewed

Introduction
The 111th Congress allocated $19 billion of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 toward the creation of an electronic health record (EHR) for each person in the United States by 2014.(1) The recent…

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Posted in Ethics, Healthcare Policy

Ethics Commentary: Communication and Breaking Bad News

July 2, 2009

Commentary on Dr. Cox’s Tales of Survival by Antonella Surbone MD PhD FACP, Ethics Editor

Commenting on Dr. Cox’s honest heartfelt piece is not an easy task and even less so for me, as Ethics Editor. Why? Because before being a trained, published…

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Posted in Ethics

Commentary on Conscientious Objection in Medicine: A Moral Dilemma

June 5, 2009

aristotle_by_raphael

The following is a commentary  on last week’s post, Conscientious Objection in Medicine: A Moral Dilemma, written by Dr. Bradley.

 Commentary by Antonella Surbone, MD PhD FACP, Ethics Editor

The piece by Dr. Bradley raises a highly controversial issue in today’s medicine,…

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Posted in Ethics

Conscientious Objection in Medicine: A Moral Dilemma

May 28, 2009

aristotle_by_raphaelIshmeal Bradley MD

Faculty Peer Reviewed

Please also see the commentary by Antonella Surbone, MD PhD FACP, Ethics Editor

Consider this: what would you do if a patient with terminal pancreatic cancer told you, his primary care doctor of twenty years, that he wanted…

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Posted in Ethics

Is prescribing placebos an ethical practice?

February 18, 2009

placebo.jpgCommentary by Antonella Surbone, MD PhD FACP, NYU Department of Medicine, Clinical Correlations Ethics Section Editor

In October 2008, BMJ published a research article entitled “Prescribing placebo treatments: results of a national survey of US internists and rheumatologists.” Of 679 physicians who responded…

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Posted in Ethics

X-Ray Visions: What is your radiation risk?

January 29, 2009

xraylogo.jpgCommentary by Michael Hanley MD PGY-3 and James D. Koonce MD PGY-3, Department of Radiology, Medical University of South Carolina

www.X-rayRisk.com - A Free Online Calculator that Estimates an Individual’s Additional Risk of Cancer as a Result of Medical Imaging

An estimated 62 million CT scans…

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Posted in Ethics, Radiology