When patients are unable to express their wishes and do not have surrogates or advance directives, which and whose values should inform decision making for them? We discuss ethical complexities of caring for unrepresented patients.
Dr Paul T. Menzel joins Ethics Talk to discuss his article: "How Should Willingness-to-Pay Values of Quality-Adjusted Life-Years Be Updated and According to Whom?"
Dr Anna L. Westermair joins Ethics Talk to discuss her article, coauthored with Dr Manuel Trachsel: “Moral Intuitions About Futility as Prompts for Evaluating Goals in Mental Health Care.”
This month, AMA Journal of Ethics editor-in-chief Audiey Kao, MD, PhD, interviewed Peter A. Ubel, MD, about factors contributing to the high cost of health care, how to bend the cost curve, and the compatibility of cost containment and profit seeking.
Virtual Mentor issue editor Sophia Cedola, a medical student at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, interviewed Dr. Craig Blinderman about talking with patients who are terminally ill, asking him whether there are some key “do’s” and “don’ts” for having end-of-life conversations with patients and their families.