A new issue of Nurses Philosophy (Vol 14, No 2, April 2013) is now available online and in print.

Articles of interest include:

• Doctor? Who? Nurses, patient’s best interests and treatment withdrawal: when no doctor is available, should nurses withdraw treatment from patients? by Giles Birchley
• An internal morality of nursing: what it can and cannot do by Roger A Newham
• Nurses as ‘guests’– a study of a concept in light of Jacques Derrida’s philosophy of hospitality by Stina Oresland et al.

A new issue of JAMA (March 7, 2013) is now available online and in print.  In this issue one article stands out: Global Health: Governance Challenges in Global Health by J Frenk and S Moon

A new issue of Journal of Medical Ethics (Vol 39, No 3, 1 March 2013) is now available online and in print.

There are two major discussions in this issue: Elective Ventilation and Electroconvulsive Therapy.  The discussion on Elective Ventilation is joined by:

• Elective ventilation for organ donation: law, policy and public ethics by John Coggon
• Is providing elective ventilation in the best interests of potential donors? by Andrew John McGee, Benjamin Peter White
• Elective non-therapeutic intensive care and the four principles of medical ethics by Antoine Baumann, Gérard Audibert, Caroline Guibet Lafaye, Louis Puybasset, Paul-Michel Mertes, Frédérique Claudot
• Advance statement of consent from patients with primary CNS tumours to organ donation and elective ventilation by Umang Jash Patel
• Dignifying death and the morality of elective ventilation by Pablo De Lora, Alicia Pérez Blanco
• Honouring the donor: in death and in life by Grant Gillett
• Elective ventilation and the politics of death by Nathan Emmerich

Three entries in the discussion on Electroconvulsive Therapy are:

• Electroconvulsive therapy, the placebo effect and informed consent by Charlotte Rosalind Blease
• Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) from the patient’s perspective by Julie K Hersh
• Electroconvulsive therapy: the importance of informed consent and ‘placebo literacy’ by Charlotte Blease

A new issue of Health Policy and Planning (Vol 28, No 2, March 2013) is now available online and in print.

Articles include:

• Community-level impact of the reproductive health vouchers programme on service utilization in Kenya by Francis Obare, Charlotte Warren, et al.
• The role of social networks in the governance of health systems: the case of eye care systems in Ghana by Karl Blanchet and Philip James

A new issue of Journal of Public Health (Vol 35, No 1, March 2013) is now available online and in print.

An editorial “What should public health be doing for disabled people, and why aren’t we?” by Anita Houghton is of interest.

There is also a Perspectives debate opened by “Social inequality in health, responsibility and egalitarian justice” by M Marchman Andersen, et al. with responses by Gabriel Scally and Jasper Littmann.

Also note “Appealing to altruism: an alternative strategy to address the health workforce crisis in developing countries?” by Richard Smith, Mylene Lagarde, et al.

A new issue of Human Reproduction (Vol. 28, No. 3, March 2013) is now available online and in print.

Articles of interest include:

• Preventing the transmission of pathogenic mitochondrial DNA mutations: can we achieve long-term benefits from germ-line gene transfer? by David C. Samuels, Passom Wonnapinij, and Patrick F. Chinnery [PDF]
• The right of the donor to information about children conceived from his or her gametes by Inez Raes, An Ravelingien, and Guido Pennings [PDF]
• Does long in vitro culture promote large for gestational age babies? by S. Mäkinen, V. Söderström-Anttila, J. Vainio, A.-M. Suikkari, and T. Tuuri [PDF]

A new edition of Bioethics (Vol. 27, Issue 3, March 2013) is now available online and in print.

Articles of interest include:

• Being a Good Academic Citizen by Udo Schuklenk
• Getting Moral Enhancement Right: The Desirability of Moral Bioenhancement by Ingmar Persson and Julian Savulescu

A new issue of Health & Social Work (Vol. 38 No. 1, February 2013) is now available online and in print.

Articles of interest include:

• Unequal Burden of Disease, Unequal Participation in Clinical Trials: Solutions from African American and Latino Community Members by Marvella E. Ford, Laura A. Sminoff, Elisabeth Pickelsimer, et al. [PDF]
• Department of Health and Human Services Changes: Implications for Hospital Social Workers by Annemarie Conlon and Patti A. Aldredge [PDF]

A new issue of JAMA (Vol 309, No 8, February 27, 2013) is now available online and in print.

Articles of interest include:

• Why the Ethics of Parsimonious Medicine Is Not the Ethics of Rationing by Con C. Tilburt, and Christine K. Cassel
• Reporting of Patient-Reported Outcomes in Randomized Trials by Melanie Calvert, Jane Blazeby, Douglas G. Altman, et al.

A new issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (February 28, 2013) is now available online and in print.

There is an extended debate on Open Access, Patient Privacy, and the future of medical publishing including:

• Protecting Patient Privacy and Data Security by JK Taitsman, CM Grimm, and S Agrawal
• For the Sake of Inquiry and Knowledge — The Inevitability of Open Access by AJ Wolpert (Free Full Text)
• The Downside of Open-Access Publishing by C Haug (Free Full Text)

A new issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association (Vol 309 No 6, February 13) is available digitally and in print.

Articles of interest include:

• “Silencing the Science on Gun Research” by Arthur L. Kellermann, MD, MPH, Frederick P. Rivara, MD, MPH.
• “Curbing Gun Violence:  Lessons From Public Health Successes” by Dariush Mozaffarian, MD, DrPH, David Hemenway, PhD, David S. Ludwig, MD, PhD.
• “Improving Access to Mental Health Services for Youth in the United States” by Janet R. Cummings, PhD, Hefei Wen, BA, Benjamin G. Druss, MD, MPH.
• “Community Research Partnerships:  Underappreciated Challenges, Unrealized Opportunities” by Jennifer Kulynych, JD, PhD, Kate Gallin Heffernan, JD.

A new issue of Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy (Vol 16 No 1, February 2013) is available online and in print.

Articles of interest include:

• “Quandries of Ethics Education” by Bert Gordijn & Henk ten Have.
• “How not to Think: Medical Ethics as Negative Education” by Y. M. Barilan & M. Brusa.
• “The French Bioethics Debate: Norms, Values and Practice” by Véronique Fournier & Marta Spranzi.

A new issue of The New England Journal of Medicine (Vol 368 No 6, February 7) available in print and digitally.  Of particular interest is the Perspective article “Becoming a Physician: Service: An Essential Component of Graduate Medical Education.” by JC. Kesselheim and C.K. Cassel

A new edition of <i>The Journal of the American Medical Association</i> (Vol 309 No 5, February 6) is available online and in print.

Articles of interest include:

• “FDA Regulation of Off-label Drug Promotion Under Attack” by Aaron S. Kesselheim, MD, JD, MPH; Michelle M. Mello, JD, PhD, MPhil; Jerry Avorn, MD.
• “Falling Off the Edge” by Sharon K. Inouye, MD, MPH; James J. O’Connell, MD; Margaret R. Puelle.
• “Change in End-of-Life Care for Medicare Beneficiaries: Site of Death, Place of Care, and Health Care Transitions in 2000, 2005, and 2009” by Joan M. Teno, MD, MS; Pedro L. Gozalo, PhD; Julie P. W. Bynum, MD, MPH; Natalie E. Leland, PhD; Susan C. Miller, PhD, MBA; Nancy E. Morden, MD, MPH; Thomas Scupp, BS; David C. Goodman, MD; Vincent Mor, PhD.
• “Changes in End-of-Life Care Over the Past Decade: More Not Better” by Grace Jenq, MD; Mary E. Tinetti, MD.

Bioethics (Vol. 26 Issue 9) is now available online and in print.  Articles include questions about religion, enhancment.  A large portion of the issue is dedicated to a debate over homeopathy.

• Human Enhancement And Sexual Dimorphism By Rob Sparrow
• ‘They Say Islam Has A Solution For Everything, So Why Are There No Guidelines For This?’ Ethical Dilemmas Associated With The Births And Deaths Of Infants With Fatal Abnormalities From A Small Sample Of Pakistani Muslim Couples In Britain By Alison Shaw
• For Homeopathy: A Practising Physician’s Perspective by Richard Moskowitz
• Is Homeopathy Really ‘Morally And Ethically Unacceptable’? A Critique Of Pure Scientism by Lionel Milgrom And Kate Chatfield
• Homeopathy Is Unscientific And Unethical by Kevin Smith

Journal of Medical Ethics (Vol. 38 Issue 11, November 1, 2012) is now available in print and online.

Articles include:

• Evaluating a patient’s request for life-prolonging treatment: an ethical framework by Eva C Winkler, Wolfgang Hiddemann, Georg Marckmann (full text available)
• Jehovah’s Witnesses and autonomy: honouring the refusal of blood transfusions by Gregory L Bock
• Ethical considerations for performing decompressive craniectomy as a life-saving intervention for severe traumatic brain injury by Stephen Honeybul, Grant Gillett, Kwok Ho, Christopher Lind

The New England Journal of Medicine (Vol. 367 Number 17 October 25, 2012) is now available in print and online.

Of special interest is the article Talking with Patients about Dying by T.J. Smith and D.L. Longo

“Self-deception is a valuable personal coping tool. It allows us to aspire to significance, strive for new knowledge, and yearn to make a lasting contribution to the world despite the certainty of our inevitable end. Indeed, no arduous task would ever be undertaken if we were unable to exaggerate the benefits we expect from it and underestimate the difficulty of its accomplishment. Daniel Kahneman has called this the “planning fallacy,” our tendency to overestimate benefits and underestimate costs, and thus make foolish decisions to embark on risky pathways.”

Journal of the American Medical Association (Vol. 308 Number 16 October 24, 2012) is now available online and in print.  Articles of note include:

• Choosing Wisely:  Low-Value Services, Utilization, and Patient Cost Sharing by Kevin G. Volpp, MD, PhD; George Loewenstein, PhD; David A. Asch, MD, MBA
• What’s Needed Is a Health Care System That Learns:  Recommendations From an IOM Report by Mark Smith, MD, MBA; George Halvorson; Gary Kaplan, MD

Health Economics, Policy and Law (Vol. 7 Issue 4 October 2012) is now available in print.

This issue is focused on two broad topics, a comparison of health-care systems in the US and UK and end-of-life issues.  Articles include:

• Comparing the United States and United Kingdom: contrasts and correspondences by Rudolf Klein
• Valuing end-of-life care in the United States: the case of new cancer drugs by Corinna Sorenson
• Setting priorities in and for end-of-life care: challenges in the application of economic evaluation by Charles Normand

This paper examines the relationship between attitudes of filial responsibility and five different types of care-giving behaviours to parents among three cultural groups. It does so within an assessment of the relative importance of cultural versus structural factors for care-giving behaviours. However, cultural group per se is a strong predictor of care-giving behaviours as are: parental ill health, living arrangements, and relationship quality. This study suggests gerontological assumptions about the role of societal norms and personal attitudes in parental care-giving should be questioned. It also suggests the need for further inquiry into unpacking those aspects of ‘cultural group’ that are related to behavioural differences, and the importance of examining multiple types of care-giving behaviours and of distinguishing task-oriented helping behaviour from other types of assistance. (Ageing & Society abstract online)

Health Policy and Planning (Vol. 27, No. 6 September 2012) is now available online.

Articles include:

• “Perceived quality of and access to care among poor urban women in Kenya and their utilization of delivery care: harnessing the potential of private clinics?” by Jean Christophe Fotso and Carol Mukiira

• “Existing health inequalities in India: informing preparedness planning for an influenza pandemic” by Supriya Kumar and Sandra C Quinn