Using data from comparative effectiveness studies to inform cost-effectiveness analyses or other economic evaluations would strengthen ethical policy making.
AMA J Ethics. 2015;17(7):651-655. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2015.17.7.pfor1-1507.
Decisions about where and to whose professional stewardship patients are admitted are influenced by federal policies of which physicians might not be aware.
AMA J Ethics. 2023;25(12):E901-908. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2023.901.
Eitan Neidich, Alon B. Neidich, David A. Axelrod, MD, and John P. Roberts, MD
Geographic disparities in availability of organs for transplant have spawned for-profit companies that help patients get on waitlists in more than one region and arrange travel for them if an organ becomes available.
Physician-journalists balance the ethical requirements of two professions with competing goals. Physicians must “do patients no harm ” and “keep secret” what they “see or hear”; journalists seek out and disseminate information in service of public enlightenment.
The importance of the Oregon experiment is that the state developed a public process for prioritizing medical services rather than relying on undisclosed private decisions by individuals or insurers.
This process of developing EBM-based guidelines and applying them to clinical care highlights the tension between generating unbiased knowledge based on statistical aggregation and the application of this information to individual patients.
The Orphan Drug Act of 1983 provides incentives to encourage the development of drugs for rare diseases, but available orphan drugs tend to be expensive and targeted to the more common of the rare diseases.
AMA J Ethics. 2015;17(8):776-779. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2015.17.8.pfor2-1508.