Jan 11, 2021

COLORADO MAGAZINE-HISTORY COLORADO: Brian Jackson, MD, MA, writes, "The pandemic has exposed public health shortcomings and deadly racial inequities, propelling new ways of thinking about the health and wellbeing of our whole society, including what a “right to health care” really means. We’ve realized that a fair process for deciding how to respond might be more important than the response itself."

Jan 6, 2021

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: The US Migrant Protection Protocols Program (MPP) subjects children and adults to serious, ongoing harm, including abduction and rape, and should be quickly and decisively dismantled, according to a 103-page investigative report, "Like I'm Drowning," co-authored by Warren Binford, JD, EdM. She concludes, “The MPP was crafted and carried out by US government officials who knew or should have known they were putting children in harm’s way.”

Jan 12, 2021

AMA JOURNAL OF ETHICS: In this video edition of Ethics Talk, journal editor in chief, Dr Audiey Kao, talks with Dr. Matthew Wynia about implementation of crisis standards of care in response to the dramatic surge in COVID-19 cases that is pushing the limits of US hospitals' critical care capacity.

Jan 10, 2021

JOURNAL OF PAIN AND SYMPTOM MANAGEMENT: Jean Abbott, MD, MH, and co-authors review state and regional gaps in planning for scarcity in palliative care and hospice services during this pandemic and describe the initiatives Colorado has developed to address potential scarcities for this vulnerable and diverse group of people. They conclude that advance planning will help decrease stress on individual patients and families by helping patients, families, and their medical providers understand a patient’s wishes. On a community level, anticipation of potential needs if crisis standards of care must be activated, will decrease stress on healthcare systems by removing the burden of making allocation decisions at the bedside.

Jan 4, 2021

BRITISH JOURNAL OF CLINICAL PHARMACOLOGY: Drug and Therapeutics Committees make important decisions about which medicines are approved for use in hospitals, health systems and reimbursed by insurers. Lisa Bero, PhD and co-authors examine the potential influence of conflicts of interest of committee members on these decisions and makes suggestions for minimizing this influence and keeping the decisions based on evidence.

Jan 4, 2021

AMA JOURNAL OF ETHICS: This month's Journal is dedicated entirely to contemporary lessons to be learned from health professional involvement in the Holocaust. From abortion to xeno-transplantation, deliberation on almost every ethics topic in health care today—genetics, informed consent, public health, military and civilian health policy and practice, death and dying, human subjects research, and refugee care—is influenced by Nazi medical crimes. Matthew Wynia and Tessa Chelouche were co-editors and there are multiple articles featuring faculty and associates of the Center.

Dec 29, 2020

ATLANTA JOURNAL CONSTITUTION: Christine Baugh, PhD, MPH, and her co-authors surveyed 296 college football players from four teams in the Power 5 Conferences of the NCAA. They concluded, “That athletes underestimated their risk of concussion and injury in this study raises important ethical considerations. What is the threshold for college athletes to be sufficiently informed of the risks and benefits of football to make decisions that align with their values and preferences?”

Dec 18, 2020

PBS/WHYY-The Pulse: My mom saved my life that day. But what if she hadn’t been there? What if they didn’t catch it at all? I could’ve ended up permanently disabled. Or worse — I could have died. How come everybody but my mom dismissed my symptoms? Center Director Matthew Wynia finds 22-year old Mimi Hayes quite inspiring - stroke survivor, comedian and now a budding journalist. She called to talk about medical errors and ethics...

Dec 16, 2020

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN: A recent study by public health scientists at Deakin University in Australia, found that more than half of 1,461 studies yielded outcomes favorable to company products compared to less than 10 percent lacking such support. Commenting on the recent analysis, Lisa Bero, PhD, contends that industry may skew research in ways peer review cannot catch. She cites four key approaches industry uses to manipulate research: by influencing what research questions are asked, how studies are designed, how conclusions interpret data and whether unfavorable findings ever get published.

Dec 10, 2020

NATIONAL ACADEMY OF MEDICINE: Months into the pandemic, there’s no reliable estimate of health care worker deaths due to COVID-19. A new rapid expert consultation, co-authored by Center Director Matthew Wynia, MD, MPH, proposes methods to track deaths from occupational exposure to the virus, and deaths by suicide. It also outlines strategies to support the physical safety and mental well-being of health care workers

Dec 14, 2020

NEWSWEEK: Over the past four years, only a small handful of private citizens have been granted access to US government facilities to interview children and their families arriving in the United States and check if their conditions are safe, sanitary and appropriate. CBH faculty Warren Binford, JD, EdM and attorney Hope Frye were two of those citizens. In trips to over a dozen facilities and interviews with over 100 children and their families, they exposed hunger, filth, coldness, illness and shame these children have endured at the hands of the U.S. government.

Nov 26, 2020

LAWS: The creation and distribution of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) has become one of the fastest growing illicit online industries in the United States. Warren Binford, JD, EdM and co-authors conducted interviews and focus groups with law enforcement agencies and legal representatives throughout the western United States, to understand challenges and complexities of investigating and prosecuting cases of CSAM, and as a foundation to develop best practices in this area.

Dec 14, 2020

SOCIAL SCIENCE AND MEDICINE: When health recommendations significantly differ from, or threaten the interests, values and preferred practices of end-users, organized and often very public resistance to guideline implementation may result. Lisa Bero, PhD and co-authors explore why professional stakeholders form active resistances to the implementation of some clinical guidelines, and how professional values, perspectives, interests and/or experiences influence the stakeholders’ stance. The authors suggest strategies to mitigate and resolve these issues, including understanding resistance as a political strategy, increasing transparency of public input and coalition building as a part of the public response to active resistance

Dec 14, 2020

JAMA: In an invited commentary, Center Director Matthew Wynia writes, "A ubiquitous aim for crisis triage protocols (but not always the only aim) has been to save the most lives with the resources available. Deliberative community engagement will therefore be required to determine how to weigh these principles in triage protocols."

Dec 9, 2020

BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL: Lisa Bero, PhD and co-authors found a fairly consistent association between financial conflicts of interest and recommendations that favor clinical interventions relevant to the conflict. They suggest that clinicians and healthcare decision makers avoid using opinion pieces with conflicted authors and primarily use clinical guidelines that are based on rigorous methodology and have clear policies of how to manage conflicts of interest, such as excluding or minimizing the role of members with conflicts and ensuring a broad skill set in the panel. A more detailed publication appears as a Cochrane Review.

Dec 9, 2020

NEW YORK TIMES: Ben Carson, Chris Christie and Donald J. Trump all have gotten an antibody treatment in such short supply that Colorado is using a lottery system. CBH Director Dr. Matthew Wynia said that giving the powerful access was patently unfair. “That’s one of the reasons why we decided that we would allocate this only through the state and only through this random allocation process,” he said, “so that no one could get a leg up by virtue of their special connections.”

Oct 25, 2020

The Student Professionalism & Ethics Association in Dentistry (SPEA) recognized the University of Colorado School of Dental Medicine with it's 2020 Chapter Award for "Best Fight Against COVID."

Dec 9, 2020

THE ATLANTIC: A system of care that privileges only survival odds reinforces existing injustices. “Equity still matters,” even in a crisis situation, Center Director Matthew Wynia said. “Justice matters. Fairness still matters. You’re not just trying to optimize a number.”

Dec 7, 2020

9NEWS: Center Director Matthew Wynia, MD, MPH discusses the emerging ethical issues around vaccine allocation in Colorado with 9News reporter Tom Green. View interview>>

Dec 4, 2020

Hastings Center Fellows are academic bioethicists, scholars from other disciplines, scientists, journalists, lawyers, novelists, artists or highly accomplished persons from other spheres. Their common distinguishing feature is uncommon insight and impact in areas of critical concern to the Center – how best to understand and manage the inevitable values questions, moral uncertainties and societal effects that arise as a consequence of advances in the life sciences, the need to improve health and health care for people of all ages, and mitigation of human impact on the natural world.