Mark Pfeifer, MD and Barbara A. Head, PhD, CHPN, ACSW
Interdisciplinary support, securing reliable information from a patient’s health record, and taking a “who, what, when, where, and how” approach to conversation can improve care planning with dying patients and their loved ones.
AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(8):E724-731. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2018.724.
Undocumented patients in the United States with end-stage renal disease receive “compassionate” dialysis. Such patients oscillate between being marginally well and “ill enough” to receive dialysis while clinicians wrestle with complicity in a system that both offers and withholds life-saving therapy.
AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(8):E778-779. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2018.778.
Patient safety is a medical ethics issue that must be addressed through health care teams’ open communication as well as through time-outs and checklists.
AMA J Ethics. 2016;18(9):925-932. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2016.18.9.stas1-1609.
More frequent use of robotic-assisted surgeries means we need to ask more questions about care quality and equity, informed consent, and conflicts of interest.
AMA J Ethics. 2023;25(8):E605-608. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2023.605.