By I. Glenn Cohen As John Robertson mentioned in his post earlier this week, in order to avoid age-related infertility many women are considering or will soon consider using egg freezing, as the technology has dramatically improved. As compared to freezing preembryos, for example, this is an attractive option since many of these women (heterosexual…
The New England Journal of Medicine has two new commentaries out on the SUPPORT study and arguing that OHRP has things all wrong – in a dangerous way. From the editors: “[OHRP’s] response is disappointing, because it does not take into account either the extent of clinical equipoise at the time the study was initiated…
By Holly Fernandez Lynch On Monday, the World Medical Association opened a 2-month public consultation on proposed revisions to the Declaration of Helsinki. The Declaration was most recently revised in 2008, and according to the WMA, the current round of proposed changes is intended “to provide for more protection for vulnerable groups and all participants by…
By Adam Kolber In Why the Rich Don’t Give to Charity, Ken Stern writes that with all the attention given to donations from wealthy people, “you would be forgiven for thinking that the story of charity in this country is a story of epic generosity on the part of the American rich. It is not.” Stern…
[Posted on behalf of Art Caplan] On January 7, 1610 Galileo Galilei, the Italian physicist and astronomer, aimed his new invention, the telescope, at the sky and became the first human to observe three of the moons orbiting the planet Jupiter. His discovery created a sensation since he had shown that there were objects in…
By Casey Thomson This week’s slightly belated round-up concerns palliative care across cultures, the threat and problems of over-prescribing, and Big Pharma’s failure to create prices with the patient in mind. Read on for more from this week’s round-up. Alex Smith (@AlexSmithMD) retweeted a piece on the lessons learned by Dr. Vvjeyanthi “V.J.” Periyakoil on…
By Susannah Rose One of my primary areas of research is in conflicts of interest (COI). I generally focus on the financial relationships between physicians/researchers and the pharmaceutical industry. See Here Here and Here. However, COI researchers and policy makers need to expand our scope to include other health care professionals who have relationships with other…
By John Robertson Glenn Cohen and Eli Adashi have an interesting Sounding Board piece in the latest NEJM[i] on made-to-order embryos for sale. A California clinic offering this option has garnered enormous publicity. It might, however, have stimulated more bioethical thinking than actual demand for its services. On the bioethical side, Glenn and Eli survey the…
By Holly Fernandez Lynch By now, most of you have heard about the controversial study that sought to evaluate how much oxygen to give premature newborns to preserve both their lives and their sight. Below, Laura Stark lays out some of the key details about the study and OHRP’s response, and concludes that part of…
By Laura Stark Institutional Review Boards are in the top news at outlets such as the New York Times, as a research debacle unfolds. I looked through the documents that are publicly available to figure out what happened and what to expect. Researchers at 22 universities or hospitals in the US enrolled premature babies in…
