News by Subject Policy & Ethics

Patients who identify as transgender have lower odds of being screened for cancer, suggests a new study from St. Michael's Hospital, which also explores how doctors can address the disparity. The study assessed screening rates for cervical, breast, and colorectal cancer among 120 transgender patients eligible for screening and compared these with screening rates among the cisgender (i.e. non-transgender) patient population at the St. Michael's Hospital Academic Family Health Team.

US doctors who receive direct payments from opioid manufacturers tend to prescribe more opioids than doctors who receive no such payments, according to new research published by Addiction.

African-American women at high risk of breast cancer are less likely than white women to pursue potentially life-saving preventive care, and racial disparities in health care and elsewhere are to blame, new research suggests.

The American College of Physicians (ACP) today released the seventh edition of its Ethics Manual. New or significantly expanded sections of the ACP Ethics Manual include precision medicine and genetic testing, research and protection of human subjects, telemedicine, electronic communications, social media and online professionalism, electronic health records, and physician volunteerism.

Genomic studies have generated important discoveries regarding human health and behaviour, but new research from the University of Oxford suggests that scientific advancement is limited by a lack of diversity. They show that the people studied in genetic discovery research continue to be overwhelmingly of European descent, but also for the first time reveal that subjects are concentrated in a handful of countries -- the UK, US and Iceland, and have specific demographic characteristics.

Drug companies cite R&D as the reason for ever-increasing drug prices, but a new study shows it's actually price hikes on older drugs that's driving the trend.

Advances in artificial intelligence, including activity trackers, smartphones and smartwatches, threaten the privacy of people's health data, according to new research from the University of California, Berkeley.

Six months after treatment ended, 7 percent of patients remained on opioid pain medications.