The Ethics Blog

A blog from the Centre for Research Ethics & Bioethics (CRB)

Page 19 of 47

Promoting public health requires responsibility, compassion and humility

Public health focuses on the prevention of disease and the promotion of health on a collective level, that is, the health of the population. This distinguishes public health from medical care and the doctor-patient relationship. In a clinical setting, the doctor discusses treatments with the patient directly and risks and benefits are assessed in relation […]

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Pragmatic trials without informed consent?

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are considered to be the gold standard for determining a causal effect of medical interventions. To achieve this aim, possible confounding factors must be avoided. This implies excluding many patients from participating in the trial, for example, patients with concomitant conditions. A negative consequence of these exclusions, however, is limited generalizability. […]

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On “truly” understanding the risk

It is a well-known psychological fact that people have great difficulties to understand probabilistic risks. What does it actually mean that the risk of developing breast cancer the next ten years is fifteen percent? In addition to the difficulties of understanding probabilities, mathematical expressions can cause a false appearance of exactitude and objectivity. It is […]

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