Medical ethics must be considered for protecting the fights and interests of patients in clinical trials. Now the fights of the subjects are more and more emphasised, but there are some problems. It is evidence-based medicine (EBM) and emphasis of evidence that need the high-quality clinical trials, yet it violates the principle of ethics in some degree. It will be helpful for the administrators to supervise the clinical trials on drugs well from the point of ethical views.
Objective Based on evidence-based medicine systematic research and literature analysis methods, to make a quantitative and qualitative analysis on Chinese and No-Chinese literatures with subject of Medical Ethics. Concise and analyze the law and trends of subject development, to provide baseline data and decision-making reference for the relevant decision-making and follow-up study. Method We analyzed keywords in medical ethics articles in PubMed and CNKI database, and developed subject charts, research field relationship charts, and strategy coordination charts using word co-occurrence, PFNET algorithms, and visualization methods. Result Literatures collected from PubMed is six times than that from CNKI. Medical ethics research in China, starting later than abroad almost 35 years, is still at the preliminary stage of development. Eight matured research fields are formed as Morals, Ethical review, Physician-Patient relations, clinical trial, euthanasia, medical ethics education, clinical ethics, and health policy outside of China. Comparatively, in China there are only five fields are developed such as Morals, Physician-Patient relations, medical ethics education, bioethics, and medical research. Conclusion Foreign countries more focus on how to employ medical ethics to solve new problems occurred in clinics and medical research, with morals, ethical review, and Physician-Patient relations as the center of research net. Researchers in China pay more attentions on morals and education with morals as the only research net center. So an urgent need is called to make a transition from simply moral research into applied research stressing on both moral education and ethic review.
Since the medical research has becomes one of the basic responsibilities of medical staff, the education of medical research ethics plays a key role in standard transformation in the study of research ethics and publishing ethics. Based on the teaching of medical ethics for medial undergraduates, this paper discusses the feasibility of research ethics as the breakthrough point of medical ethics course to cultivate the scientific thought and ethic awareness of medical students, analyzes the shortages existing in the traditional teaching of medical ethics, and finally puts forward suggestions of the construction of medical humanism coping with the rapid improvement of medical science.
Controversy exists regarding the ethics of using placebo control groups in clinical trials when effective treatments exist. The debate was fueled by the announcement of the 5th revision of the Declaration of Helsinki (2000). This study reviews the history and scientific background surrounding the controversy and investigates the prevailing attitudes of Hong Kong researchers regarding this issue. The controversy has centered on a few issues. The first involves the methodological superiority of placebo-controlled trials in discerning treatment effects. Secondly, it is unclear if the treatment effects encompass absolute treatment effects (including placebo effects) or are confined to treatment-specific effects (excluding placebo effects). Thirdly, there are worries that subjects in the placebo group could be exposed to higher risk for developing serious adverse events. Fourthly, it is debated whether the standard of best available treatment should be a local one, or an international one. Preliminary research findings suggest that the opinions of the Hong Kong researchers seemed to be divided on the use of placebo control groups in clinical trials when effective treatment exists. Further researcher on the topic is therefore warranted, training and consensus meeting may be necessary to minimize the confusion related to this issue.
Moral education and professional quality training remain important part of medical education and talent training. This article aimed to conduct a questionnaire survey on medical college students about their professional ethics status and school education in professional ethics, so as to explore the paths and measures of medical students' professional ethics education. College education bears the primary responsibility for the medical students' professional ethics education, thus reasonable curriculum should be set up and teaching methods should be innovated; Industry environment and social ethos also have important implications on medical students' professional ethics cognition and behavior, so it is necessary to regulate the behavior of the medical industry according to law; Information age requires correct public opinion by means of network guidance, and under the impact of the pluralistic culture and values, doctors need to adapt themselves to our excellent traditional culture.
Recently, real world studies (RWS) have received increasing attentions. Such studies typically involve patient information, and their results may have potentially significant impact on patient well-being and safety. When reviewing the protocol of real world studies, ethical issues should be carefully considered and assessed. This paper discussed three issues, including the overview of bioethics and its application to classic clinical trials, key features of RWS, and medical ethical considerations on RWS.
ObjectiveIn this study, we aimed to investigate the medical postgraduates’ attitudes on scientific misconduct activities to provide support to scientific research integrity education.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional survey in 3 medical schools in Sichuan province in September 2020. Medical postgraduates were investigated to report the sociodemographic information and self-attitude on research activities.ResultsOf the 983 students completed, 73.14% were pursuing the master program and 27.9% had published SCI papers. For attitudes on scientific misconduct activities, 0.93% agreed to change negative results picture into positive by software and 5.08% consented to modify data when P value was above 0.05 slightly.ConclusionsThe results of this study show that a small portion of medical postgraduates are still not resolute on academic misconduct. We should further strengthen education and establish the bottom line thinking which cannot be touched by the academic misconduct of medical postgraduates.
Objective To summarize the methods and experience of animal experiment ethics training at home and abroad, analyze the opportunities and problems, and explore the ethics training methods suitable for the current situation of animal experiments in China. Methods Documents relating to animal experiment ethics training from January 2012 to February 2022 were searched in PubMed, Embase, China National Knowledge Infrastructure and Wanfang Data databases. After literature screening and data extraction by 2 researchers independently, descriptive analysis was performed. Results A total of 44 documents were selected, including 19 in Chinese and 25 in English, involving 44 institutions. According to the literature analysis, in the United States, Britain and other developed countries, the welfare and ethical laws for laboratory animals were relatively perfect, such as the Animal Welfare Act of the United States, the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act of Britain, the Animal Welfare Act of German, and the Act on Welfare and Management of Animals of Japan, while in China administrative regulations were the main ones, and most of the institutions were restricted by management regulations; the ethics of personnel involved in animal experiments were uneven; the training time of some domestic institutions was less than that of institutions abroad; domestic training methods and contents needed to be improved. Basing on the comparative results at home and abroad and combining the training experience, West China Hospital of Sichuan University improved the animal experiment ethics training system. Conclusion It is suggested that the animal experimental institutions in China should improve the training methods, to enhance the awareness and cognition of people involved in animal experiments more systematically and scientifically, and strengthen the ethical review.
This comprehensive review systematically explores the multifaceted applications, inherent challenges, and promising future directions of artificial intelligence (AI) within the medical domain. It meticulously examines AI's specific contributions to basic medical research, disease prevention, intelligent diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation, nursing, and health management. Furthermore, the review delves into AI's innovative practices and pivotal roles in clinical trials, hospital administration, medical education, as well as the realms of medical ethics and policy formulation. Notably, the review identifies several key challenges confronting AI in healthcare, encompassing issues such as inadequate algorithm transparency, data privacy concerns, absent regulatory standards, and incomplete risk assessment frameworks. Looking ahead, the future trajectory of AI in healthcare encompasses enhancing algorithm interpretability, propelling generative AI applications, establishing robust data-sharing mechanisms, refining regulatory policies and standards, nurturing interdisciplinary talent, fostering collaboration among industry, academia, and medical institutions, and advancing inclusive, personalized precision medicine. Emphasizing the synergy between AI and emerging technologies like 5G, big data, and cloud computing, this review anticipates a new era of intelligent collaboration and inclusive sharing in healthcare. Through a multidimensional analysis, it presents a holistic overview of AI's medical applications and development prospects, catering to researchers, practitioners, and policymakers in the healthcare sector. Ultimately, this review aims to catalyze the deep integration and innovative deployment of AI technology in healthcare, thereby driving the sustainable advancement of smart healthcare.
To address the persistent challenges in surgical clinical research, we provide a comprehensive analysis of the series of articles on randomized controlled trials (RCTs) methodology guidance published in JAMA Surgery from 2022 to 2023. This section contents focus on critical aspects of RCTs, including trial design, selection criteria, ethical considerations, quality control, and budgeting and funding support. The objective is to enhance the understanding of RCTs among researchers, particularly surgeons, thereby guiding them in conducting high-quality and scientifically robust RCTs.