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Informed consent is broadly endorsed as a process that should facilitate shared decision making between a patient (or surrogate) and a physician (or other clinician). The goal of this collaborative process is to help patients make decisions that reflect what matters most to them, based on their...
Physicians regularly counsel patients on essential healthy lifestyle habits: eat at least five servings of vegetables, get 30 minutes of exercise, and sleep at least eight hours each day. However, this can be easier said than done especially for medical students who are trying to balance their...
Communication about medical errors with patients and families demonstrates respect, compassion, and commitment by providing information, acknowledging harm, and maintaining trust through a process of dialogue that involves multiple conversations. This communication requires knowledge, skills, and...
Many suggest that shared decision-making (SDM) is the most effective approach to clinical counseling. It is unclear if this applies to surgical decision-making-especially regarding urgent, highly-morbid operations. In this scoping review, we identify articles that address patient and surgeon...
Little data exists regarding decision-making preferences for parents and surgeons in pediatric surgery. Here we investigate whether parents and surgeons have similar decision-making preferences as well as which factors influence those preferences. Specifically, we compare parents' and surgeons'...
A recent review reveals what many of observe in practice: clinicians use the phrase "goals of care" in a variety of ways, often with a definition more assumed than revealed. The phrase is of particular importance when it is used to refer to a certain kind of conversation between a clinician and...
Do surgeons and patients/parents value shared decision-making in pediatric surgery? Shared decision-making (SDM) is touted as the preferred approach to clinical counseling. However, few data exist regarding whether patients prefer SDM over surgeon-guided discussions for complex surgical decision-...
Patients with co-existing cancer and mental illness must be given special attention due to the vulnerability that is created by their compromised psychological ability to comprehend the meaning of their cancer diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis. They are at increased risk for mortality due to many...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued draft guidance on the use of "electronic informed consent" (eIC) in FDA-regulated clinical trials of medical products, including drugs and biological products, medical devices, and combinations of those products for human use. As part of an...
The UIHC Ethics Consult Service officially started on June 2, 2014. The Service is a resource for patients, family members, or health professionals at UIHC who would like help addressing an ethical question or issue related to a patient's care. During the first year of the Service, there were a...