Health care ethics committees may fail in their role as mediators if their members lack impartiality, independence, or expertise in policy formation.

Telemedicine is fast becoming a reliable medium for convening ethics deliberations and bringing expert assistance to remote locations.

Strategies for improving health care ethics consultation should appeal to key stakeholders in hospitals and not just the academic bioethics community.

While some physicians try to avoid ethics consultations, their participation can be essential for good patient care.

Successful telemedicine ethics consultation requires knowledge of relevant laws and, for videoconferences, the physical presence of a meeting leader.

In the UK, a pilot program at King’s College London offers a valuable forum for ethics discussions among medical students.

The challenge in professionalizing bioethics is to retain interdisciplinary membership and exchange as an integral part of the profession.

Emergency medical consultations share with other emergencies the need for prompt action, potentially without information or tools ordinarily available.

The AMA Code of Medical Ethics opinions related to ethics consultations and ethics committees in health care institutions.

Hospital ethics committees originated with concerns about legal liability, but today they educate, develop and implement policies, and review cases.