Exploring the potential utility of AI large language models for medical ethics: an expert panel evaluation of GPT-4.

Integrating large language models (LLMs) like GPT-4 into medical ethics is a novel concept, and understanding the effectiveness of these models in aiding ethicists with decision-making can have significant implications for the healthcare sector. Thus, the objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of GPT-4 in responding to complex medical ethical vignettes and to gauge its utility and limitations for aiding medical ethicists. Using a mixed-methods, cross-sectional survey approach, a panel of six ethicists assessed LLM-generated responses to eight ethical vignettes.

Voluntary stopping of eating and drinking in the age of medical assistance in dying: ethical considerations for physicians.

Since 2016, when medical assistance in dying (MAiD) became legal in Canada, healthcare professionals (HCPs) have become familiar with exploring and acting upon patients' wishes to hasten death (WTHD). In contrast to MAiD, the literature on the voluntary stopping of eating and drinking (VSED) is very limited and there are no standards of practice or legal guidance to support HCPs. In this article, the legal and ethical literature as regards VSED is critically reviewed and new standards of practice are proposed.

Paternalism and autonomy: views of patients and providers in a transitional (post-communist) country.

Background: Patient autonomy is a fundamental, yet challenging, principle of professional medical ethics. The idea that individual patients should have the freedom to make choices about their lives, including medical matters, has become increasingly prominent in current literature. However, this has not always been the case, especially in communist countries where paternalistic attitudes have been interwoven into all relationships including medical ones.

Bilateral sequential adult cochlear implantation: who should receive priority in the context of a constrained health care system?

Resource allocation decisions have become increasingly necessary as the cost of health care habitually increases. Bilateral (second side) adult cochlear implantation (CI) is an example of a novel technology with accruing evidence of benefit, yet expense has limited universal employ. Currently at our centers, bilateral implantation is only provided under research protocol.

FLO: a cure for what ails healthcare?

Zimmerman et al. contend that it is only by providing front-line staff with the tools and the power to change practice that patient safety can be truly embedded in an institution. In this commentary, the author agrees with this argument and adds that patients and families must also have a central place at the table when it comes to addressing healthcare's failings.

Nurses' disclosure of error scenarios in nursing homes.

Background: Little work has explored the disclosure of errors in nursing homes (NHs).

Purpose: This paper reports how nurses would disclose hypothetical errors that occur in NH settings.

Method: A cross-sectional survey was given to a randomly selected sample of registered nurses (RNs) and registered practical nurses (RPNs) working in Ontario, Canada NHs.

Nurses' perceptions of error reporting and disclosure in nursing homes.

Nurses have an obligation to disclose an error when one occurs. This study explored 1180 nurses' perceptions of error disclosure in the nursing home setting. Nurse respondents found disclosure to be a difficult process.

Safety incidents in family medicine.

Objective: To discuss the characteristics of incidents reported to the Medical Safety in Community Practice (MSCP) safety learning system.

Methods: Members of family physician offices in the Alberta Health Services--Calgary zone, confidentially reported patient safety incidents via web or fax from September 2007 to August 2010. The incident reporting form contained both open-ended and closed questions.

To tell or not to tell? Professional and lay perspectives on the disclosure of personal health information in community-based dementia care.

Developments in information technology and the ongoing restructuring of health services to increase provision in community settings militate in favour of a streamlining of communications and the exchange of information about patients among health and social care providers. Yet the principles of confidentiality and privacy appear to inhibit this process. In order to explore the practical, ethical, and legal imperatives attendant upon personal health information exchange, we conducted a series of interviews with professional care providers, persons with early-stage dementia, and their family caregivers.

Informed consent in the NICU setting: an ethically optimal model for research solicitation.

Recruiting patients for studies in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit is a complex endeavour. Much discussion has occurred regarding the optimal recruitment "model" for this environment. This paper discusses current and suggested recruitment models for the NICU setting and presents a systematic approach to the consent process that focuses on the protection and promotion of parental autonomy.

The Canadian Adverse Events Study: the incidence of adverse events among hospital patients in Canada.

Background: Research into adverse events (AEs) has highlighted the need to improve patient safety. AEs are unintended injuries or complications resulting in death, disability or prolonged hospital stay that arise from health care management. We estimated the incidence of AEs among patients in Canadian acute care hospitals.

Helicobacter pylori and the prevention of gastric cancer.

Background: Helicobacter pylori is an important cause of stomach cancer that infects a substantial proportion of the Canadian adult population. H pylori can be detected by noninvasive tests and effectively eradicated by medical treatment. Screening for and treatment of H pylori may represent a significant opportunity for preventive oncology.