Apr 14, 2020

NEW YORK TIMES: Imagine that you’re a physician at a hospital overwhelmed by the coronavirus. Three new patients have just arrived in your I.C.U., each gasping for air— a 75-year-old grandfather who was in perfect health just a week ago, a 30-year-old woman who has diabetes and asthma, and a 50-year-old I.C.U. nurse who, like you, has been treating coronavirus patients for weeks.

Apr 7, 2020

AAMC: Center Director Matthew Wynia, MD, MPH is quoted, “Let’s say you have five patients for every one ventilator. That’s an incredibly tragic and difficult, Sophie’s Choice-type of decision.”

Apr 6, 2020

KUNC COLORADO EDITION: Governor Polis’ Expert Emergency Epidemic Response Committee recently updated their crisis standard of care guidelines. Center Director Matthew Wynia, MD, MPH participated in development of these triage guidelines, and explains their efforts to ensure equity of care for COVID-19 patients across the state.

Apr 1, 2020

MSNBC: Matthew Wynia, MD, MPH, Director of the Center for Bioethics and Humanities and Douglas White, MD, MAS, Endowed Chair for Ethics in Critical Care Medicine at University of Pittsburgh discuss the difficult decision-making processes health care organizations face during the COVID-19 pandemic, on MSNBC.

Apr 3, 2020

THE ATLANTIC: “We need to be able to look back and say we made those decisions in a way that maintains the trust of the community, that maintains social cohesion, and allows us to heal,” Center Director Matthew Wynia, MD, MPH said.

Apr 3, 2020

NEWSWEEK: "People making triage decisions should not even have access to information about a patient's race or religious background and whether they're disabled, homeless or a major hospital donor," says Center Director Matthew Wynia, MD, MPH. "Never in my lifetime have we had anything like this. You have to go back to World War II to see the kinds of decisions that are being made right now."

Apr 1, 2020

THE DENVER CHANNEL-7 NEWS: Center Director Matthew Wynia, MD, MPH is a part of the Governor's Expert Emergency Epidemic Response Committee, a team of doctors helping finalize guidelines for patient care if supplies and ICU beds become in short supply. "These are decisions we hope to never have to make, but it would be irresponsible given what has happened in the rest of the world including Seattle, in New York and New Orleans, and other places around the U.S., to assume that we are never going to see that kind of a situation here," Wynia said.

Apr 2, 2020

COLORADO PUBLIC RADIO: What if four patients in respiratory distress need a ventilator to keep them alive, but a hospital has just one available? Who makes that call? And how? “There is no good way to make these kinds of decisions. Every decision you make is going to be incredibly painful and the people who make these decisions live with those for the rest of their lives,” says CBH Director, Matthew Wynia, MD, MPH.

Apr 1, 2020

LANCASTER ONLINE: Center Director Matthew Wynia, MD, MPH is quoted, “We’ve always had the requirement that people get asked about an advance care plan, but now we are taking that incredibly seriously,” he said. “Because we need to know if you get much worse, what would you want?”

Apr 1, 2020

FRONT PORCH: Center faculty Daniel Goldberg, JD, PhD co-authored an article describing how the buy-in for social isolation is understandably challenging for many in a society that cherishes individual freedoms and individualism over the collective. The pandemic highlights how our behavioral norms as well as our nation’s overarching political philosophy may be incompatible with a crisis of this nature.

Mar 28, 2020

BOULDER DAILY CAMERA: In this time of medical uncertainty, what matters most to you? Have you talked to your family about what you would want if you got really sick? Commentary by Amanda Meier, Coordinator of The Conversation Project, and CBH Faculty Jean Abbott, MD, MH, Professor Emerita of Emergency Medicine at University of Colorado.

Mar 24, 2020

NATIONAL CATHOLIC REGISTER: Colorado's plan is to “minimize serious illness and death by administering a finite pool of resources to those who have the greatest opportunity to benefit from them. It’s very military-style triage,” says Dr. Matthew Wynia, Director of the Center for Bioethics and Humanities, in a National Catholic Register article.

Mar 24, 2020

FORBES: Center Director, Dr. Matthew Wynia noted that there is widespread agreement amongst experts “not to make decisions on perceived social worth, race, ethnic background and long-term disability status.” If necessary, this might include using a lottery or other method of randomized allocation to ensure equal access to resources within groups of people with similar medical prognosis.

Mar 26, 2020

AMA: "If you look back to the plagues of the Middle Ages, the Black Death, it was really very common for physicians to flee areas that were plague stricken, following the advice that they often gave to their wealthy patients as well, which was ‘Cito, longe, tarde,’ which means ‘Go fast, go far and don't come back too soon,’ said Center Director Dr. Matthew Wynia.

Mar 27, 2020

ADVANCED SCIENCE NEWS: In facing a pandemic of this magnitude, coming together and seeking connection is more important than ever before. Commentary by Geoffrey Ozin and Todd Siler.

Mar 24, 2020

NEW YORK TIMES: “It would be irresponsible at this point not to get ready to make tragic decisions about who lives and who dies,” said Dr. Matthew Wynia, Director of the Center for Bioethics and Humanities.

Mar 24, 2020

NEW YORK TIMES: CBH Director Matthew Wynia, MD, MPH is trying to ensure that patients on admission to Colorado hospitals are asked whether they would forgo a ventilator if there were not enough for everyone. “One thing everyone agrees on is that the most morally defensible way to decide would be to ask the patients.”

Mar 24, 2020

COLORADO SUN: “If we get hit that hard, we are going to have some very difficult decisions to make. It would be irresponsible not to plan right now for a huge surge of patients,” says CBH Director, Matthew Wynia, MD, MPH.

Mar 23, 2020

Our fourth Annual Report highlights some of our Center’s most remarkable educational programs, community outreach events, research activities and clinical ethics initiatives. In these uncertain times, we hope the report will also provide an important opportunity to step back and celebrate the people and programs that have made the University of Colorado a national example of excellence in bioethics and health humanities!

Mar 21, 2001 by Bioethics and Humanities

"Things have gone very, very badly in hospitals where they have run out of equipment, supplies, staff, space, people. We need to be prepared for that. Guidelines must be transparent so the public has faith that decisions are fair and ethically justifiable," says Center Director, Matthew Wynia, MD, MPH, in a March 21 interview on NPR.