The FDA and REMS

In July 2012, the US Food and Drug Administration released a risk evaluation and mitigation strategy for extended release pain medications. How will this REMS affect patients in pain and the physicians who treat them?

Lynn Webster, MD, is president elect of the American Academy of Pain Medicine, and he discusses REMS and pain in this edition of The Bioethics Channel with Lorell LaBoube.

Link: FDA opioid safety plan focuses on physician education, Christine S. Moyer, American Medical News, July 23, 2012

Translating Research from Lab to Bedside

In this edition of The Frontiers Podcast we visit with Scott Weir, the director of the Institute for Advancing Medical Innovation at the University of Kansas Medical Center. 

He was a panelist for a discussion entitled “The Reinvention of Translational Medicine” during a symposium in Kansas City on May 31st 2012.

For more information about Frontiers visit www.frontiersresearch.org. 

Docs and Assisted Dying

While this article addresses the question of physician assisted dying, for me it also prompts a couple of questions:

 

1. When should doctors stop trying to cure a terminal disease? 

2. And should doctors stay at the bedside until death?

When my brother died two years ago of prostate cancer I noticed how some of the doctors involved with his care became physically distant as he neared death. Some didn't show up at all. 

What's the right thing to do?

L2  

Assisted Dying: Experts Debate Doctor's Role

Katie Moisse

ABC News

July 13, 2012

More than two-thirds of American doctors object to physician-assisted suicide, according to a 2008 study published in the American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care. An editorial published in the New England Journal of Medicine argues that removing doctors from assisted dying could make it more available to patients.

Link: Redefining Physicians' Role in Assisted Dying, New England Journal of Medicine, July 12, 2012

Accelerating the Translation of Research

John Spertus, MD

In this edition of The Frontiers Podcast we visit with John Spertus, MD, director of health outcomes research at Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute in Kansas City, MO.

Dr. Spertus delivered a presentation entitled “Accelerating the Translation of Research to Improve Care” during a symposium in Kansas City on May 31st 2012.

For more information visit Frontiers: The Heartland Institute for Clinical and Translational Research at www.frontiersresearch.org.

Bioethics: The Next Generation

So what about the next generation of bioethicists? 

If the three young people featured in this edition of The Bioethics Channel are any indication, we can look forward to a fine crew of committed and smart medical professionals and educators.

What do you think?

L2

Bioethics: The Next Generation

Emily Abdoler

Brett Kaylor

Daniel Vogelsang

Bioethics: The Next Generation is the subject of this edition of The Bioethics Channel. Host Lorell LaBoube visits with three individuals who have served as program interns at the Center for Practical Bioethics, and how that experience has shaped their goals for the future.

A Zettabyte too far?

Imagine going online to find human tissue for your research project. 

You can, and you'll find more than 300 billion points of data for sale, according to Dr. Atul Butte of Stanford. 

Orwellian? A zettabyte too far? You be the judge as you listen to this podcast.

The Frontiers Podcast: Transforming 300 Billion Points of Data

Clinical and translational researchers are now creating data by the zettabyte. In fact, there's so much data that it's becoming more difficult to ask the right questions.

That's according to Atul Butte, MD, PhD, of Stanford University. Dr. Butte also serves on the external advisory board for Frontiers: The Heartland Institute for Clinical and Translational Research.

Removing Kidneys Before Death

Should we remove kidneys from a dying person before they are dead? 

That's the question addressed in the June 2012 edition of The American Journal of Bioethics. Terry Rosell, the Rosemary Flanigan Chair at the Center for Practical Bioethics,  talks about the ethics of such an approach in this edition of The Bioethics Channel with Lorell LaBoube.

Autonomy Run Amok?

Mary Crowley

The Hastings Center

Writing about healthcare and bioethics is one thing. Experiencing it first hand can be quite another. 

A medical journalist talks about her experience during a hospital stay in this edition of The Bioethics Channel with Lorell LaBoube.