Good design can help transform health care, in part because it involves drawing on a wide range of perspectives and experiences. This month, we talked with a health care designer, a patient advocate, and a physician to learn how “design thinking” can be successfully incorporated into health care systems and applications.

Scott Schweikart joins Ethics Talk to discuss his article: “AMA Code of Medical Ethics’ Opinions Related to Clinicians in Government.”

In the September 2014 issue on physicians as agents of social change, Dr. Audiey Kao, editor-in-chief of Virtual Mentor interviewed Dr. Rajiv Shah, administrator of the United States Agency for International Development or USAID.

The adverse health effects of climate change should be the focus of physician advocacy efforts and of conversations between physicians and their patients.

Specific contributions to a scientific article entitle the contributor to be included as an author; requests for authorship by those who have not made those specific contributions are unethical.

The bias for publishing positive clinical-research results can cause physicians to question journal articles as dependable sources of product information.

The percentages of women who have published in academic medical journals over the last 3 decades continues to grow.

Physicians need to become more involved in the public debate regarding issues of medicine, science, and evolution.

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.