By Masatoshi Matsumoto. Physicians predominantly cluster in urban areas, often leaving rural populations underserved. This phenomenon is observed worldwide. Consequently, the question arises: is it both necessary and justifiable for governments to allocate physicians to rural regions? In addressing this issue, the Japanese government has adopted an approach involving the establishment of Jichi Medical University […]
Category: healthcare
Different emergency departments, different triage systems: when is it an ethical problem that two patients with the same condition are triaged with different criteria? And should the public know about it?
By Davide Battisti and Silvia Camporesi. It is likely that, like us, you will have had an experience in Emergency Departments (EDs), or that you can recall an experience of accompanying a relative or friend there. Let’s consider the scenario where the reason for you, your relative, or friend going to the ED was the […]
What place does kindness have in medicine?
By Katherine Cheung. Asking whether kindness should play a role in medicine, and if our physicians should be asked to be kind, looks like a redundant question – it seems as though any person should answer yes. However, Dr. Edwin Jesudason interestingly points out that in choosing to be kind, we might also have to […]
Re-thinking consent for treatment: clinical interests and the public interest
By Abeezar I. Sarela. In its recent guidance on consent, the General Medical Council (GMC) advises doctors to not provide treatment that ‘you (the doctor) don’t think would be in their (the patient’s) clinical interests’. It follows that doctors should only provide treatments that are in the patient’s clinical interests. But, what exactly is meant […]
Housestaff unionization in the United States and our duties to each other
By Karel-Bart Celie. In a recent issue of JAMA, Ahmed et al. published data on healthcare unionization in the United States between 2009 and 2021. Despite the observed association between unionization and higher wages, better benefits, and more equitable compensation, unionization among healthcare workers has evidently remained low. Richman and Schulman (R&S) wrote a commentary […]
Challenging lesser evil justifications for non-clinically indicated uses of antipsychotics in aged care facilities
By Hojjat Soofi. The administration of antipsychotic medications to residents with dementia in aged care facilities remains a subject of considerable controversy. A major focus of the controversy has been on the (questionable) influence that non-clinical considerations have on the rate of antipsychotic prescriptions in aged care facilities. Often, the primary beneficiaries of antipsychotic uses […]
If some inhalers contribute to global warming, how should healthcare respond?
By Joshua Parker. Most people are surprised to hear that if industrialised healthcare were a country it would be the fifth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases on the planet. In 2019, the NHS was responsible for around 7% of England’s total carbon footprint; approximately 25 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent. We can already see the effects […]
Should doctors help patients import medicines?
By Narcyz Ghinea. In the mid 2010s, breakthrough medicines that promised to cure hepatitis C came onto the market. The catch was, the pharmaceutical company Gilead set the price of up to £70 000 for a 3-month course of treatment. No government would pay that much given the number of people with hepatitis C. In the […]
Demystifying a part of the Wild West of healthcare AI
By Jordan Joseph Wadden. The pace at which we can see technological developments in healthcare is truly amazing. Sometimes it almost seems like technology is moving too fast, which raises some familiar concerns about patient safety, job security, and sometimes even what it means to be human. One of the fastest growing uses of technology […]
The doctor can “see” you now – the ethical considerations of patient rights and safeguards in online mental health act assessments during Covid-19
By Lisa Schölin and Arun Chopra. It is fair to say that when the pandemic hit we were not entirely prepared to move our social lives, work, and healthcare to online platforms. Yet, we had to. But in which services, and more specifically in what situations, can remote contact sufficiently, legally, and safely be used […]