Some clinicians offering image-guided procedures have little training in palliative medicine, which is both a clinical and an ethical problem.

Seeming incongruity between surgery and palliation reiterates patients’ needs for clinicians to be able to identify when and how they should coexist.

Guidance about sedation to unconsciousness and medically ineffective interventions can be applied to surgical palliation.

Clinician-family communication in surgical intensive care units should focus on reducing value incongruence and nonbeneficial operations.

Device innovation has potential to improve patient outcomes over time, yet prospective benefits must be considered in light of risks.

Lack of training and lack of knowledge can adversely influence a patient’s clinical outcomes.

Financial relationships are common, and ethical questions rightly emerge about how conflicts of interest compromise investigators’ approaches to research.

This issue invites clinicians, researchers, device representatives, and patient-safety champions to consider how to exercise sufficient caution without stifling innovation.

The AMA Code of Medical Ethics offers guidance for balancing need for safety with demand for innovation.

Breast implant-associated anaplastic large cell lymphoma and breast implant illness have prompted recalls of implants.