In this video edition of Ethics Talk, journal editor in chief, Dr Audiey Kao, talks with Prof Lawrence Gostin about the challenges of balancing public health ethics and personal civil liberties during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In this video edition of Ethics Talk, journal editor in chief, Dr Audiey Kao, talks with Dr Mollyann Brodie about the science of polling, public opinions on COVID-19, and politically-divergent views on policy options to achieve universal health care coverage.
This commentary on a case suggests how palliative care psychiatry can facilitate compassionate resolution of ethical conflicts in end-of-life care decision making with persons with substance use disorders.
Palliative interventions are intended to alleviate suffering and improve quality, not quantity, of life and are not intended to cure illness. In psychiatry, uncertainty about which interventions count as palliative stems from the fact that psychiatry generally prioritizes symptom management…
American health care is rife with inequity in access to services. Even among people with insurance, inequity can result from insurers’ decisions about which services to cover. These decisions are often based on economic models that are seemingly objective but…
Cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) provides a formal assessment of trade-offs involving benefits, harms, and costs inherent in alternative options. CEA has been increasingly used to inform public and private organizations’ reimbursement decisions, benefit designs, and price negotiations worldwide. Despite the lack…
This article offers examples of how modeling can motivate health equity inquiry and research. This article also considers how equity fits into cost-effectiveness frameworks, how economic modeling can broaden the range of options for improving health equity, and how information…
Nosocomial infections are public health threats with often grave human costs. Because implementing screening and best outbreak response practices is costly for health care organizations, allocating resources for interventions requires consensus among stakeholders with a plurality of perspectives about how…
Novel interventions that are effective and safe but costly suggest the importance of questions about value, accessibility, and affordability. Economic evaluation is one useful tool that health care systems draw upon to help make investment decisions and set priorities. But…
Physicians’ primary responsibility is to promote patients’ well-being, which includes not causing financial harm. Physicians also have duties to prudently steward health care resources. Balancing these responsibilities requires recommending interventions likely to achieve patients’ health goals while avoiding unnecessary expenditures….
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