When cultures clash: physician, patient, and family wishes in truth disclosure for dying patients.

We describe two cases involving male foreign nationals (a Chinese and a Georgian) treated in a U.S. hospital. Both patients had terminal illnesses, and both cases involved clashes between families and the treating physicians, which occurred because of differing cultural beliefs about truth disclosure. Based on the specific backgrounds of these two patients, we discuss ethical and cultural considerations and make suggestions for physicians who care for ethnically diverse patients.

Determination of "futility" in emergency medicine.

The practice of emergency medicine routinely requires rapid decisionmaking regarding various interventions and therapies. Such decisions should be based on the expected risks and benefits to the patient, family, and society. At times, certain interventions and therapies may be considered "futile," or of low expected likelihood of benefit to the patient. Various interpretations of the term "futility" and its practical application to the practice of emergency medicine are explored, as well as background information and potential application of various legal, ethical, and organizational policies regarding the determination of "futility. "Decisions regarding potential benefit of interventions should be based on scientific evidence, societal consensus, and professional standards, not on individual bias regarding quality of life or other subjective matters. Physicians are under no ethical obligation to provide treatments they judge to have no realistic likelihood of benefit to the patient. Decisions to withhold treatment should be made with careful consideration of scientific evidence of likelihood of medical benefit, other benefits (including intangible benefits), potential risks of the proposed intervention, patient preferences, and family wishes. When certain interventions are withheld, special efforts should be made to maintain effective communication, comfort, support, and counseling for the patient, family, and friends.

Making decisions about life-sustaining medical treatment in patients with dementia. The problem of patient decision-making capacity.

The problem of decision-making capacity in patients with dementia, such as those with early stage Alzheimer's, can be vexing, especially when these patients refuse life-sustaining medical treatments. However, these patients should not be presumed to lack decision-making capacity. Instead, an analysis of the patient's decision-making capacity should be made. Patients who have some degree of decision-making capacity may be able to make a choice about life-sustaining medical treatment and may, in many cases, choose to forgo treatment.

Law and ethics in emergency medicine.

Ethical issues in emergency medicine often are accompanied by legal issues. Although the legal aspects of an ethical problem are important factors to take into consideration, the law may not directly address the problem, and following the law does not always ensure an ethical outcome. Emergency physicians should have an understanding of ethics and law, understand the legal aspects of bioethical issues in emergency medicine, and finally have a guide to analyze ethical issues, including the consideration of legal issues that may have an impact on the case.

Managed care ethics: an emergency?

The rapid expansion of cost-consciousness and managed care into the medical marketplace has challenged the autonomy of physicians and patients. These challenges have taken a variety of forms, including limitations on reimbursement and restrictions on the amount and type of emergency care patients may receive. Challenges aside, the economic agenda of managed care must not threaten the primacy of patient welfare. The fidelity of the emergency physician-patient relationship and the integrity of the medical profession hangs in the balance.

HIV and AIDS. Legal and ethical issues in the emergency department.

The treatment of individuals infected with HIV in the emergency department presents difficult and unique medical, social, legal, and ethical issues. These issues include: (1) informed consent for testing for HIV status, (2) mandatory testing of patients for HIV, (3) confidentiality of patients infected with HIV, (4) the duty to treat individuals infected with HIV, and (5) issues concerning health care workers infected with HIV.

The bioethics discussion forum--an implementation of an Internet-based bioethics information analysis resource.

Ethical analysis is crucial to decision making in biomedicine and health care, necessitating both rapid access to diffusely disseminated sources of information pertinent to bioethics and promotion of analysis in the field of bioethics through a resource for information analysis. We developed the Bioethics Discussion Forum, an Internet-based information analysis resource, in order to supplement the Bioethics Online Service with an interactive information medium to meet the demand for such an interactive resource. The Bioethics Discussion Forum has shown promise for information analysis, providing an arena for the review and discussion of complex bioethical information, establishing a connection nationally and internationally among individuals with high levels of expertise in bioethics, and providing a template for future interactive informatics services.

Willingness to perform euthanasia. A survey of physician attitudes.

BACKGROUND: In the United States, few studies have examined important variables in physician attitudes toward the practice of euthanasia, such as the patient's underlying disease, mental capacity, and age, and the physician's specialty and religion. We administered a case-based survey to analyze the impact of such specific variables on physician attitudes toward the practice. METHODS: A four-section survey solicited (1) physician responses to three hypothetical cases in which patients requested euthanasia; (2) physicians' general opinions about euthanasia and how its legalization might affect them personally and professionally; and (3) demographic information. Analysis focused on physicians' characteristics as they related to their responses to the various aspects of euthanasia elicited in the survey. Univariate and multivariate analyses, using logistic regression, were performed. RESULTS: Completed and analyzable surveys were returned by 740 physicians. We found that physicians felt more comfortable with euthanasia requests from nondecisional, nonterminal patients who had left advance directives than they did with requests from decisional patients suffering from grave illnesses or injuries, or from decisional patients who had early signs of a progressive but nonlethal neurologic disease. We also found that physicians' specialties and religions correlated with their responses to the hypothetical cases and with their generalized attitudes toward euthanasia. CONCLUSIONS: Given the disparity in responding physicians' attitudes toward euthanasia, along with the fact that values based on religious affiliation or profession may underlie many physicians' opposition to the practice, we conclude that if euthanasia is to be legalized, safeguards protective of patients and physicians must be incorporated.

The Bioethics Online Service--an implementation of a bioethics database and information resource.

Ethical analysis is crucial to decision making in biomedicine and health care, necessitating rapid access to diffusely disseminated sources of information pertinent to bioethics. We developed the Bioethics Online Service to provide this access and to provide a forum for discussion of bioethical issues. The service, originally designed as a local resource, was expanded to allow Internet access and now enjoys widespread extramural use. We have logged over 8,000 users from our campus, around the state, the nation, and 42 other countries. This model has shown promise in utility and ease of access, and is being used as the template for other informatics developments on our campus and beyond.

The emergency care network of a ski marathon.

In this paper we report the system of emergency care that was used in a large-scale cross-country ski marathon. We describe the typical terrain encountered, personnel required, physical facilities, communication system, injury protocol, and types and numbers of injuries seen. We have found that many injuries can occur in a cross-country ski race, given specific race conditions. A complete and efficient emergency care network is essential to the success of any athletic event similar to the one we report. These races are rapidly growing in number and size, yet we could not find any previous reports in the literature pertaining to the medical care necessary. We hope to provide a model for emergency care that can be applied to many different athletic events involving large numbers of participants and covering great distances.