Policy relevance and the ethical conduct of science.

Scientific enquiry and the communication of science are essential to achieving development goals. The demand for evidence-based policy poses a challenge to maintaining the ethical conduct of science. The modern scientist faces intense competition in light of the changing nature of collaborative efforts, the quickening pace and increasing complexity of research endeavours and a growing emphasis on commercialisation of research results. Academic performance criteria continually change, becoming more demanding and increasing complex to measure. The integrity of the scientific community is challenged by cases of falsification, fabrication and plagiarism. The mass production of science outputs, evidenced by the incredible rise of predatory journals, poses risks for the veracity of science. Yet, scientists are not the only ones driven by performance targets. Under the constant scrutiny of governing boards, research and development funders-both public and private-are increasingly pressed to demonstrate outputs, outcomes and impact. There is an urgent need for independent research but also a need for consensus with regard to policy guidance. Consensus studies expect scientists to make sense of the available science and find a way of presenting the controversies, contradictions and convergence of evidence to guide policy decisions. Policy consensus dialogues can valorise science guidance. These practices adopt multidisciplinary approaches, bringing top-rated scientists from a variety of disciplines around the table to contribute best practice examples, share experiences and lessons learnt against the background of solid critique of existing research.

AMA Code of Medical Ethics' Opinions Related to Ethics of Life-Sustaining Technologies.

Advances in science and technology have far-reaching potential for implementation in health care and must be considered from an ethics perspective. Physicians conducting research on such technologies must consider their duties to subjects and patients. The AMA Code of Medical Ethics offers guidance on research conduct and best practices for using innovation patents.

Ethics, health care and spinal cord injury: research, practice and finance.

Dating back to ancient times, mankind has been absorbed with 'doing the right thing', that is, behaving in ways approved by the society and the culture during the era in which they lived. This has been and still is especially true for the medical and related health-care professions. Laws and professional codes have evolved over the years that provide guidelines as to how physicians should treat patients, beginning with the one authored by Hippocrates. Only more recently, however, have laws and codes been created to cover health-care research and the advances in health-care practice that have been brought to light by that research. Although these discoveries have clearly impacted the quality of life and duration of life for people with spinal cord injury and other maladies, they have also raised questions that go beyond the science. Questions such as when, why, how and for how long should such treatments be applied often relate more to what a society and its culture will condone and the answers can differ and have differed among societies depending on the prevailing ethics and morals. Modern codes and laws have been created so that the trust people have traditionally placed in their healers will not be violated or misused as happened during wars past, especially in Nazi Germany. This paper will trace the evolution of the rules that medical researchers, practitioners and payers for treatment must now follow and explain why guiding all their efforts that honesty must prevail.

A review of basic patient rights in psychiatric care.

Although patient rights is a concept that all nurse managers need to be aware of, this concept often becomes confusing when applied to patients undergoing psychiatric treatment. It is important for the nurse manager to understand the basic rights that psychiatric patients are entitled to, to best be able to help staff nurses under his/her supervision to protect these rights. The nurse manager on a psychiatric unit often serves as a reference for staff nurses, and even for physicians, when questions regarding patient rights present themselves. The nurse manager should be certain to discuss these issues with the facility's legal and risk management team to be aware of particulars of the law of the state in which the facility is located, as state laws may differ somewhat in their treatment of psychiatric patients.

Mirror, mirror on the wall--evaluating Fair Market Value for manufacturer-physician consulting arrangements.

Pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers contract with thousands of physicians each year, and struggle to comply with the Fair Market Value requirements of the Anti-Kickback Statute's "personal services" safe harbor. Consultant arrangements between physicians and manufactures have come under increasing scrutiny by regulators. In 2007, the five leading Hip & Knee manufacturers entered into settlement agreements related to their contract practices with physician consultants. Government sources do not provide guidance for calculating Fair Market Value; however, this article recommends four principles to use when evaluating Fair Market Value methodologies.

Extraterritorial reach of the FCPA: recommendations for U.S. medical device companies with activities in Europe.

Traditionally medical devices companies manage business compliance with anti-corruption and anti-fraud rules in a document-oriented way that does not always yield optimal results for the company. As a result, compliance issues are not optimally managed by the companies. Now that medical devices companies become ever more internationally active, they must also take into account the international dimensions of business compliance. This article intends to provide U.S. medical devices companies with activities in Europe with an insight in business compliance risks in the European Union (EU) and the risks related to U.S. statutes that may be applicable to a U.S. company's activities overseas. The article proposes a process-oriented and IT-supported way of structuring an international business compliance program, resulting in increased effectiveness of the program and increased competitiveness and risk management of the company as well as a high degree of acceptance of the procedures by the company's employees.

[Occupational physician's decisions on the basis of legislation, ethics and scientific evidence]. / La decisione del medico del lavoro: tra norme, valori etici e prove scientifiche.

BACKGROUND: In the dynamic context of occupational medicine an increasing number of occupational health problems requires a high-quality standard practice supported by decisions consistent both with ethics and legislation. OBJECTIVES: This paper examines the relationship between legal requirements, ethical values and scientific evidence issues in occupational health practice. RESULTS: i) Legal requirements. Italian law states that practice must be evidence-based and comply with the code of ethics for occupational health professionals of the ICOH. ii) Ethical values. The code itself emphasizes that practice should be relevant, knowledge-based, sound and appropriate to occupational risks. Furthermore, the objectives and methods of health surveillance and biological monitoring must be clearly defined and indicator must be chosen according to their relevance and predictive value. Any dilemma arising from the practice should be dealt with according to the ethical principles of health benefit, independence and justice. iii) Scientific evidence. Both the law and the code of ethics require that practice be based on available evidence. CONCLUSIONS: Decisions made on the basis of a comprehensive process founded on scientific evidence should result in effective and high-quality outcomes that respect both the law and the rights of individuals and society.

The duty of care and political expectations. Part 1: a literature review.

A consequence of the Government's agenda for nursing is that registered nurses are increasingly required to regard themselves as autonomous practitioners. It is therefore necessary to re-visit the legal principles involved so as to be able to identify where safe practice can be incorporated into the new innovative ways of nursing. The purpose of this article is to identify and reflect upon the ways in which nurses are incorporating these principles into practice, and secondly, to reflect on the question of accountability as expressed through the law and through the professional regulatory body's code of professional conduct.

Held to account. tt.

Representatives of two nursing organisations offer a summary of nurses' legal position in relation to unsafe staffing levels.

Recent developments in health law in Greece.

This article mainly analyzes the new Code of Ethics which is in place since 2005.