Walmart, Caterpillar and Medical Ethics

When I think about patient-centered collaboration in medicine I picture teams of physicians, nurses and social workers or primary care physi...

Research Ethics - Informed Consent for Cluster Randomized Trials

When we make choices in life we compare alternatives with regard to their quality and cost in virtually every area - except for health care!...

Medicare Open to All

A battle is looming over the question of whether a Medicare-like insurance program should be available to people of all ages. President Obam...

Euthanasia, Murder and Medical Ethics

Early this morning I read a student essay on "End-of-Life Care" for this week's medical ethics class at Harvard Medical School...

"Perverse Incentives"

Words matter! David Kahn, from Columbia University Medical Center, a fellow psychiatrist, has a wise letter in today's New York Times: ...

Containing Health Care Costs in Massachusetts - When the Going Gets Tough the Tough Get Going

Eight months ago I opined - "the wild rumpus of cost control in Massachusetts is just starting. Stay tuned to see how it plays out!...

Should the NIH Alternative Medicine Center be Defunded?

I only became aware of the controversy about the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) from an article in this...

What Can Medical Ethics Contribute to Health and Health Care in India?

Yesterday I attended a conference at Harvard Business School - "The Indian Growth Story: Sleeping Elephant or Roaring Tiger?" I...

What if Madoff Took an Ethics Class?

Here's what Michael Madoff said in court on Thursday: "I knew what I was doing was wrong, indeed criminal. When I began the Ponzi s...

Comparative Effectiveness Research

"Health Care and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act," an article today's New England Journal of Medicine, should be r...

Health Care Robots

The title of this post isn't a metaphor. It's really about robots. The most recent issue of " Proto ," a web-based magazin...

Up with Zagat! Down with Patient Waivers!

I recently discussed the collaboration between Wellpoint and Zagat for rating physicians and concluded that the benefits of web-based rating...

Ethics in Time of Financial Crisis

Nancy Walton, lead author for the Research Ethics Blog had an excellent post yesterday about "Ethics on the chopping block." She ...

President Obama's Health Care Summit

President Obama delivered the key message at today's health care summit - controlling costs is a moral responsibility as well as an econ...

Three Key Health Care Messages for President Obama to Deliver

On Thursday President Obama will convene a health care summit in Washington. Here's my view of the key steps he must take in public lead...