Under-resourced and fragmented public health infrastructure has contributed to a poor pandemic response in the United States. There have been calls to redesign the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and to increase its budget. Lawmakers also have introduced bills…
This commentary on a case examines racially inequitable outcomes, especially for Black patients, resulting from use of Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) scores to triage patients during the COVID-19 pandemic and how inequitable outcomes in triage protocols could be reduced….
When there is an evidence base that could be used credibly to justify expedited US Food and Drug Administration review, emergency use authorization, or approval, interventions-in-development must be evaluated in terms of their possible downstream influence on public trust and…
Many clinicians, including those who work in government, experience potential clashes between their professional responsibilities and personal interests that can create conflicts of interest (COIs). Some clinicians might assert that their personal stakes do not influence their professional actions, but…
The spread of health misinformation by health care professionals who also hold government positions represents a long-standing problem that intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic. This article describes this problem and considers legal and other response strategies. State licensing and credentialing…
Empathy has been shown to improve patient care and physician well-being. However, the emotional labor involved in expressing empathy might interfere with experiencing calm, equally important to clinicians’ well-being. This article offers examples of how clinical environments can bolster both…
Two commentaries respond to a case about apnea testing to confirm death by neurologic criteria.
Mismatch between whole-brain death criteria embedded in statutes and accepted tests physicians use to diagnose brain death have clinical and ethical implications that could undermine public trust in death pronouncements. We consider merits and drawbacks of 4 ways to address…
This article considers whether and when a physician is obligated to offer life support to the point of fetal viability to a patient who is brain dead and pregnant. Lack of ethical, legal, and clinical consensus about best practice in…
Brain death differs from traditional circulatory death, and understanding how it differs is important. Public awareness of brain death is based largely on inaccurate media representations, common examples of which are described here. The purpose of this article is to…
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