Drs Katrina Bramstedt and Ana Iltis discuss the development of QoL assessment tools to help patient-subjects considering reconstructive transplantation.

Dr Robert Field and Dr Yashaswini Singh join the AMA Journal of Ethics Grand Rounds series to discuss what patients and clinicians should know about private equity in health care.

Dr Olivia Kates talks about appropriate use of antibiotics during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr Mollyann Brodie talks about the about the science of polling, public opinions on COVID-19, and politically-divergent views on policy options to achieve universal health care coverage.

Matt Wuerker talks about his artistic process in creating cartoons that speak to matters of politics and policy arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The experience of an English professor dying of ovarian cancer in Margaret Edson’s play Wit shows that both literary and medical discourse obfuscate and objectify rather than promote communication of “simple human truths” that dignify life and death.

Physicians’ ethical obligations to disclose conflicts of interest to patients and to obtain their informed consent for treatment are particularly critical when proposed treatments are experimental.

The authors of a recent journal article believe that most doctors and clinical trial sponsors would not object to changes in regulations requiring doctors to disclose financial incentives to their patients.

Protecting patients rather than informed consent should be the goal when the complexity of information overwhelms patients’ decision-making capacity.