News by Subject Policy & Ethics

The recent live births resulting from human embryonic CRISPR editing have heightened global concerns regarding 'designer babies.' Currently, the most practical approach to genetic 'enhancement' is preimplantation genetic screening of IVF embryos. According to a study publishing Nov. 21 in the journal Cell, the ability to select for traits that are brought about by multiple genes -- rather than genetic diseases caused by a single mutation -- is more far off and complicated than most people realize.

Policies based on the notion that undergoing an abortion causes or increases women's risk of suicide attempts are misinformed, according to the results of a 17-year-long observational study including more than half a million 18 to 36-year-old Danish women who had a first, first-trimester abortion, published in The Lancet Psychiatry journal. The study is the first to compare the risk of women attempting suicide before and after an abortion.

In a new retrospective study published today in JAMA Internal Medicine, a team of researchers led by Rishi Wadhera, MD, MPP, MPhil, an investigator in the Smith Center for Outcomes Research in Cardiology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), found that there are indeed striking disparities in in-hospital care and mortality between homeless and non-homeless adults.

A new study has shown that the majority of women (82.5%) and men (65.1%) working at an academic medical center reported at least one incident of sexual harassment by staff, students, and faculty during the previous year.

A new EPFL and MIT study into the interplay between mobility and the 2013 and 2014 dengue outbreaks in Singapore has uncovered a legal void around access to mobile phone data -- information that can prove vital in preventing the spread of infectious diseases.

In a new research letter appearing in JAMA detailing a first-of-its-kind study, a University of Michigan team compared the use of IVF among university employees before and after the addition of an insurance coverage benefit, finding a marked increase in the rate of use.

Scientists have developed a new mobile app that categorizes mental health status based on speech patterns. It could be used as an adjunct for in-person therapy and to help monitor patients from afar. But, as the researchers note in a new paper, more must be done to earn public trust.

New research published this week in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) reveals that brand-name drug discount cards are leading to higher health care spending in Canada--increased costs that are ultimately passed on to patients.

Analysis of more than 29,000 adults listed on the national heart transplant registry from 2006 to 2015 shows how rules that give hospitals discretion in determining who gets a transplant result in large discrepancies in how sick patients are when they receive heart transplants at hospitals across the United States.

There is little hard evidence to support the widely held perception that locum doctors present a greater risk of causing harm to patients, according to new research published by the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine.