371 results match your criteria: "Institute of Biomedical Ethics.[Affiliation]"

Background: Terms and conditions define the relationship between social media companies and users. However, these legal agreements are long and written in a complex language. It remains questionable whether users understand the terms and conditions and are aware of the consequences of joining such a network.

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While the implementation of digital technology in psychiatry appears promising, there is an urgent need to address the implications of the absence of ethical design in the early development of such technologies. Some authors have noted the gap between technology development and ethical analysis and have called for an upstream examination of the ethical issues raised by digital technologies. In this paper, we address this suggestion, particularly in relation to digital healthcare technologies for patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

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Extended Reality (XR) systems, such as Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR), provide a digital simulation either of a complete environment, or of particular objects within the real world. Today, XR is used in a wide variety of settings, including gaming, design, engineering, and the military. In addition, XR has been introduced into psychology, cognitive sciences and biomedicine for both basic research as well as diagnosing or treating neurological and psychiatric disorders.

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Crews operating remotely piloted aircrafts (RPAs) in military operations may be among the few that truly experience tragic dilemmas similar to the famous Trolley Problem. In order to analyze decision-making and emotional conflict of RPA operators within Trolley-Problem-like dilemma situations, we created an RPA simulation that varied mission contexts (firefighter, military and surveillance as a control condition) and the social "value" of a potential victim. We found that participants (Air Force cadets and civilian students) were less likely to make the common utilitarian choice (sacrificing one to save five), when the value of the one increased, especially in the military context.

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Controversy continues over a proposed moratorium on elective genital surgery in childhood for disorders/differences of sex development (DSD). Empirical evidence on patient preference is needed to inform decision-making. We conducted a multicentre survey by cross-sectional questionnaire in 14 specialized clinics in six European countries.

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Background: The ongoing changes in population demographics increase the relevance of dignified aging across Europe. Community-based health care (CBHC) organizations are necessary to provide sustainable strategies for organizing care for older persons in need of support. To support the digitalization of these organizations, new business models and suitable web platforms are necessary.

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AI support for ethical decision-making around resuscitation: proceed with care.

J Med Ethics

March 2022

Department of Quantitative Biomedicine, Chair of Medical Informatics, Universität Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland.

Artificial intelligence (AI) systems are increasingly being used in healthcare, thanks to the high level of performance that these systems have proven to deliver. So far, clinical applications have focused on diagnosis and on prediction of outcomes. It is less clear in what way AI can or should support complex clinical decisions that crucially depend on patient preferences.

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The anti-vaccination infodemic on social media: A behavioral analysis.

PLoS One

March 2021

Institute of Biomedical Ethics and History of Medicine, University of Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland.

Vaccinations are without doubt one of the greatest achievements of modern medicine, and there is hope that they can constitute a solution to halt the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. However, the anti-vaccination movement is currently on the rise, spreading online misinformation about vaccine safety and causing a worrying reduction in vaccination rates worldwide. In this historical time, it is imperative to understand the reasons of vaccine hesitancy, and to find effective strategies to dismantle the rhetoric of anti-vaccination supporters.

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Ethical challenges should be addressed before gene editing is made available to improve the immune response against emerging viruses.

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Nurses' views on palliative care for those diagnosed with severe persistent mental illness: A Pilot Survey Study in Switzerland.

J Psychiatr Ment Health Nurs

February 2022

Institute of Biomedical Ethics and History of Medicine, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland.

WHAT IS KNOWN ON THE SUBJECT?: In recent years, some have suggested that palliative care approaches be considered for patients diagnosed with severe, persistent mental illness. Palliative care aims to decrease the suffering related to illness rather than focusing on curing the illness. Palliative care approaches for patients diagnosed with severe, persistent mental illness are controversial: Some argue palliative care would improve quality of life while others argue it would negatively affect patients' well-being.

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Color is key for the visual encoding of data, yet its use reportedly affects decision making in important ways. We examined the impact of various popular color schemes on experts' and lay peoples' map-based decisions in two, geography and neuroscience, scenarios, in an online visualization experiment. We found that changes in color mappings influence domain experts, especially neuroimaging experts, more in their decision-making than novices.

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Equity Is Key to Build Back Better after COVID-19: Prioritize Noncommunicable Diseases and Kidney Health.

Kidney360

April 2021

Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa; Renal Division, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts; Institute of Biomedical Ethics and the History of Medicine, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland; and Department of Nephrology, Kantonal Hospital Graubünden, Chur, Switzerland.

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In several European countries, medical assistance in dying (MAID) is no longer confined to persons with a terminal prognosis but is also available to those suffering from persistent and unbearable mental illness. To date, scholarly discourse on MAID in this population has been dominated by issues such as decision-making capacity, uncertainty as to when a disease is incurable, stigmatization, isolation, and loneliness. However, the issue of perceived burdensomeness has received little attention.

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Background: Health information systems (HIS) are fundamental tools for the surveillance of health services, estimation of disease burden and prioritization of health resources. Several gaps in the availability of HIS for kidney disease were highlighted by the first iteration of the Global Kidney Health Atlas.

Methods: As part of its second iteration, the International Society of Nephrology conducted a cross-sectional global survey between July and October 2018 to explore the coverage and scope of HIS for kidney disease, with a focus on kidney replacement therapy (KRT).

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Decision-making capacity (DMC) in aging adults has become increasingly salient as the number of older adults, life expectancy, and the amount of wealth to be transferred from older generations have all increased. The accurate and reliable determination of older adults' DMC is a particularly important topic given its implication in legal, financial, and health decisions. Based upon the four-ability DMC model promulgated by Appelbaum and Grisso in the 1980's, a number of MacArthur Competence Assessment Tools have been developed and widely utilized.

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Trust does not need to be human: it is possible to trust medical AI.

J Med Ethics

November 2020

Digital Society Initiative (DSI) and Institute of Biomedical Ethics and History of Medicine (IBME), University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.

In his recent article 'Limits of trust in medical AI,' Hatherley argues that, if we believe that the motivations that are usually recognised as relevant for interpersonal trust have to be applied to interactions between humans and medical artificial intelligence, then these systems do not appear to be the appropriate objects of trust. In this response, we argue that it is possible to discuss trust in medical artificial intelligence (AI), if one refrains from simply assuming that trust describes human-human interactions. To do so, we consider an account of trust that distinguishes trust from reliance in a way that is compatible with trusting non-human agents.

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Globally, more than 5 million people die annually from lack of access to critical treatments for kidney disease - by 2040, chronic kidney disease is projected to be the fifth leading cause of death worldwide. Kidney diseases are particularly challenging to tackle because they are pathologically diverse and are often asymptomatic. As such, kidney disease is often diagnosed late, and the global burden of kidney disease continues to be underappreciated.

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Bonus agreements of senior physicians in Switzerland - A qualitative interview study.

Z Evid Fortbild Qual Gesundhwes

December 2020

Institute of Biomedical Ethics and History of Medicine (IBME), University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. Electronic address:

In Switzerland a legal prohibition of volume-based bonus agreements has been initiated which is expected to take force at the beginning of 2021. Bonus agreements for physicians pose a risk to unbiased indication, possibly leading to over-, under- and misuse of medical care. In order to investigate physicians' perceptions of bonus agreements and reflect on them from an ethical point of view, we conducted a qualitative interview study with Swiss senior physicians.

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Kidney disease is a global public health concern across the age spectrum, including in children. However, our understanding of the true burden of kidney disease in low-resource areas is often hampered by a lack of disease awareness and access to diagnosis. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) in low-resource settings poses multiple challenges, including late diagnosis, the need for ongoing access to care and the frequent unavailability of costly therapies such as dialysis and transplantation.

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On March 11, 2020 the World Health Organization classified COVID-19, caused by Sars-CoV-2, as a pandemic. Although not much was known about the new virus, the first outbreaks in China and Italy showed that potentially a large number of people worldwide could fall critically ill in a short period of time. A shortage of ventilators and intensive care resources was expected in many countries, leading to concerns about restrictions of medical care and preventable deaths.

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Although up to 8% of European youngsters carry out high-intensity care for a family member, adolescent young carers (AYCs), especially those caring for their grandparents (GrPs), remain an under-researched group. This study aimed at addressing the current knowledge gap by carrying out an online survey in Italy, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. The analysis included a final sample of 817 AYCs aged 15-17 years old.

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Paediatric decision-making is the art of respecting the interests of child and family with due regard for evidence, values and beliefs, reconciled using two important but potentially conflicting concepts: best interest standard (BIS) and shared decision-making (SD-M). We combine qualitative research, our own data and the normative framework of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Children (UNCRC) to revisit current theoretical debate on the interrelationship of BIS and SD-M. Three cohorts of child, parent and health care professional interviewees (N = 47) from Switzerland and the United States considered SD-M an essential part of the BIS.

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