Patients' views about cardiac report cards: a qualitative study.

Background: Health care report cards provide stakeholders with information on health care outcomes and other measures of care, and they are most well developed in cardiac care. A necessary first step to ground the development of cardiac report cards (CRCs) is to incorporate the views of stakeholders. Although the views of experts have been described, the views of cardiac patients, arguably the most important stakeholders, have not yet been described.

An ethical framework for cardiac report cards: a qualitative study.

Background: The recent proliferation of health care report cards, especially in cardiac care, has occurred in the absence of an ethical framework to guide in their development and implementation. An ethical framework is a consistent and comprehensive theoretical foundation in ethics, and is formed by integrating ethical theories, relevant literature, and other critical information (such as the views of stakeholders). An ethical framework in the context of cardiac care provides guidance for developing cardiac report cards (CRCs) that are relevant and legitimate to all stakeholders.

Ethical issues related to cardiac report cards.

Health care report cards are gaining a high profile among policy makers, clinicians and the public, and are most well developed in the context of cardiac care. Although there are important ethical issues relevant to developing and implementing cardiac report cards, there currently is no explicit examination of these issues. As a consequence, outcomes researchers lack ethical guidance while designing and implementing cardiac report cards.

Cultural considerations for Canadians in the diagnosis of brain death.

Purpose: This articles explores cultural perceptions and values related to brain death and organ donation from both a Western and non-Western perspective.

Source: Anthropological literature review of the historical concept of brain death in Canada using Eastern culture as a comparison.

Principal Findings: Although the concept of brain death and concomitant organ donation have become widely practiced in Western nations such as Canada, from a cross-cultural point of view these concepts and practices can be deeply troubling and may hold profoundly different meaning to people new to Canada.

Culture, brain death, and transplantation.

From the social sciences, we know the space between life and death is historically and culturally constructed, fluid and open to dispute. The definition of death has cultural, legal, and political dimensions. As healthcare becomes more culturally diverse, the interface between culture and the delivery of healthcare will increase.