This month, AMA Journal of Ethics theme editor Margaret Cocks, MD, PhD, a third-year resident at Johns Hopkins Hospital, interviewed Theonia Boyd, MD, about ethical issues pathologists face when conducting autopsies and obtaining specimens.

Trauma care presumes informed consent for treatment, but resident supervision is required within a training structure of graduated responsibility.

The total concentration, power tools, and high stakes of the OR provided an exciting escape from the world I was supposed to occupy and from which I was supposed to derive my deepest satisfaction as a woman.

Awareness of transference reactions, practicing active listening and reflection, pausing, and articulating one’s understanding of another’s emotional motivations can help cultivate deeper patient-clinician relationships at the end of life.

If health information is private, why do we know so much about Prince’s death? Critical legal and ethical questions remain unsettled about whether and when it is appropriate for medical examiners or coroners to release information from autopsy reports to the public.

Though the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s collection of disaggregated genetic data for occupational surveillance and research raises numerous privacy concerns, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 allows genetic information to be used to develop personal pharmaceuticals.

Clinical decision support systems leverage data generated in the course of standard clinical care to improve clinical practice. They need to ensure privacy and quality of patients’ data, but must also allow queries of electronic health records.

Questions about data privacy need to be addressed when research institutions negotiate with companies developing mobile health applications. Commercial terms of use and data sharing notifications should be reviewed before use in human subject research settings.

Social and behavioral data contained in electronic health records are essential for studying health disparities. Can researchers avoid bias when collecting, analyzing, and using such data?

Pathologists’ adoption of practical social media use guidelines can help mitigate risk to patients.