QUALITY ASSESSMENT OF ETHICS ANALYSES FOR HEALTH TECHNOLOGY ASSSESSMENT.

Objectives: Although consideration of ethical issues is recognized as a crucial part of health technology assessment, ethics analysis for HTA is generally perceived as methodologically underdeveloped in comparison to other HTA domains. The aim of our study is (i) to verify existing tools for quality assessment of ethics analyses for HTA, (ii) to consider some arguments for and against the need for quality assessment tools for ethics analyses for HTA, and (iii) to propose a preliminary set of criteria that could be used for assessing the quality of ethics analyses for HTA.

Methods: We systematically reviewed the literature, reviewed HTA organizations' Web sites, and solicited views from thirty-two experts in the field of ethics for HTA.

Scientific Dishonesty: A Survey of Doctoral Students at the Major Medical Faculties in Sweden and Norway.

As we need knowledge about the prevalence of scientific dishonesty, this study investigates the knowledge of, experiences with, and attitudes toward various forms of scientific dishonesty among PhD students at the main medical faculties in Sweden and Norway. An anonymous questionnaire was distributed to all post-graduate research students attending basic PhD courses at the medical faculties in Stockholm and Oslo during the fall 2014. The responding doctoral students reported to know about various forms of scientific dishonesty from the literature, in their department, and for some also through their own experience.

Obesity as a Socially Defined Disease: Philosophical Considerations and Implications for Policy and Care.

Obesity has generated significant worries amongst health policy makers and has obtained increased attention in health care. Obesity is unanimously defined as a disease in the health care and health policy literature. However, there are pragmatic and not principled reasons for this.

Revealing and acknowledging value judgments in health technology assessment.

Background: Although value issues are increasingly addressed in health technology assessment (HTA) reports, HTA is still seen as a scientific endeavor and sometimes contrasted with value judgments, which are considered arbitrary and unscientific. This article aims at illustrating how numerous value judgments are at play in the HTA process, and why it is important to acknowledge and address value judgments.

Methods: A panel of experts involved in HTA, including ethicists, scrutinized the HTA process with regard to implicit value judgments.

Evaluation of ethical aspects in health technology assessment: more methods than applications?

Health technology assessment (HTA) emerged with the increased need for systematical evaluation of health technologies in the 1970s. From its very beginning, ethics was a constitutive part of HTA, and over the years a wide range of approaches have been suggested to address ethical aspects of health technologies. Despite a vast variety of methodologies in ethics, there is no consensus about the appropriateness of the existing methods.

Why not integrate ethics in HTA: identification and assessment of the reasons.

From the conception of HTA in the 1970s it has been argued that addressing ethical issues is an element of HTA, and many methods for integrating ethics in HTA have become available. However, despite almost 40 years with repeated intentions, only few HTA reports include ethical analysis. Why is this so? How come, ethics is a constituent part of HTA, there are many methods available, but ethics is rarely part of practical HTA work? This is the key question of this article and several reasons why ethics is not a part of HTA are identified.

Moral challenges with surgical treatment of type 2 diabetes.

Aim: To review the most important moral challenges following from the widespread use of bariatric surgery for type 2 diabetes for patients with BMI <35kg/m(2), although high quality evidence for its short and long term effectiveness and safety is limited.

Methods: Extensive literature search to identify and analyze morally relevant issues. A question based method in ethics was applied to facilitate assessment and decision making.

Health Technology Assessment - science or art?

The founding disciplines of HTA are clearly scientific, and have been firmly based among the natural sciences. However, common definitions of HTA indicate that HTA is something more than the "pure application of science". This article investigates whether this "something" also makes HTA an art.

Bariatric surgery for obese children and adolescents: a review of the moral challenges.

Background: Bariatric surgery for children and adolescents is becoming widespread. However, the evidence is still scarce and of poor quality, and many of the patients are too young to consent. This poses a series of moral challenges, which have to be addressed both when considering bariatric surgery introduced as a health care service and when deciding for treatment for young individuals.

Priority setting in health care: trends and models from Scandinavian experiences.

The Scandinavian welfare states have public health care systems which have universal coverage and traditionally low influence of private insurance and private provision. Due to raises in costs, elaborate public control of health care, and a significant technological development in health care, priority setting came on the public agenda comparatively early in the Scandinavian countries. The development of health care priority setting has been partly homogeneous and appears to follow certain phases.

Stuck in the middle: the many moral challenges with bariatric surgery.

Bariatric surgery is effective on short- and medium-term weight loss, reduction of comorbidities, and overall mortality. A large and increasing portion of the population is eligible for bariatric surgery, which increases instant health care costs. A review of the literature identifies a series of ethical challenges: unjust distribution of bariatric surgery, autonomy and informed consent, classification of obesity and selecting assessment endpoints, prejudice among health professionals, intervention in people's life-world, and medicalization of appearance.

Too much of a good thing is wonderful? A conceptual analysis of excessive examinations and diagnostic futility in diagnostic radiology.

It has been argued extensively that diagnostic services are a general good, but that it is offered in excess. So what is the problem? Is not "too much of a good thing wonderful", to paraphrase Mae West? This article explores such a possibility in the field of radiological services where it is argued that more than 40% of the examinations are excessive. The question of whether radiological examinations are excessive cries for a definition of diagnostic futility.

Fallacies in the arguments for new technology: the case of proton therapy.

In a seminal article in the Journal of Medical Ethics, Søren Holm and Tuja Takala analysed two protechnology arguments in bioethics: the hopeful principle and the automatic escalator. They showed how these arguments relate to problematic arguments such as the precautionary principle and the empirical slippery slope argument, and argued that they should be used with great caution. The present article investigates the recent debate on proton beam therapy, where the hopeful principle and the automatic escalator are identified.

Why simulation can be efficient: on the preconditions of efficient learning in complex technology based practices.

Background: It is important to demonstrate learning outcomes of simulation in technology based practices, such as in advanced health care. Although many studies show skills improvement and self-reported change to practice, there are few studies demonstrating patient outcome and societal efficiency. The objective of the study is to investigate if and why simulation can be effective and efficient in a hi-tech health care setting.

The concept of disease--vague, complex, or just indefinable?

The long ongoing and partly heated debate on the concept of disease has not led to any consensus on the status of this apparently essential concept for modern health care. The arguments range from claims that the disease concept is vague, slippery, elusive, or complex, and to statements that the concept is indefinable and unnecessary. The unsettled status of the concept of disease is challenging not only to health care where diagnosing, treating, and curing disease are core aims, but also to the branch of philosophy that tries to clarify concepts.

Broadening consent--and diluting ethics?

Biobank research is potentially fruitful. It is argued that broad consent is acceptable for future research on biological material because a) the benefit is high, b) it pays respect to people's autonomy, c) it is consistent with current practices and d) because the risk is low. Furthermore, broad consent should be allowed if information is handled safely, people can withdraw and expanded research should be approved by an ethics review board.

Why ethics should be part of health technology assessment.

From the heydays of HTA in the 1970s, it has been argued that ethics should be a part of HTA. Despite more than 30 years with repeated intentions, only few HTA reports include ethical analysis, and there is little agreement on methods for integrating ethics. This poses the question of why it is so important to integrate ethics in HTA? The article analyzes ten arguments for making ethics part of HTA.

Moral principles and medical practice: the role of patient autonomy in the extensive use of radiological services.

There has been a significant increase in the use of radiological services in the past 30 years. There are many reasons for this, but one has received little attention: the increased role of patient autonomy in healthcare. Patients demand x rays, CT scans, MRI, and positron emission tomography scans.

Technological assessment of intracytoplasmic sperm injection: an analysis of the value context.

Since the introduction of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) in 1992, the new technology has raised a series of basic moral issues. In this article, I present a brief review of this moral debate. I argue that even if we solve the moral problems of the debate, there is a residue of value issues.