An examination of medical ethics and the practitioners who define them. Sign up to receive the Second Opinion topics in newsletter form at kcrw.com/newsletters .
Artificial intelligence has suddenly burst onto the world stage, but now is the time to ensure that the use of AI is transparent, confidential, and enhances health care and not just institutional profits.
We spend lots of time figuring out at what age to start screening for cancer. But when do we stop screening?
You can easily order genetic tests online, but should you?
While the death rate for prostate cancer has fallen over the past two decades, little of this is related to routine testing of older men.
Simply providing information such as clear warning labels on restaurant menus can reduce added sugar consumption.
Can artificial intelligence, based on machine learning, predict more accurately the care a loved one would want at the end of life compared to next of kin?
The thinking goes that testing before elective surgery can reduce risks and complications. But, it turns out it may do the opposite.
Touch during a visit to the doctor has many benefits, but it can also negatively impact the provider-patient relationship.
While video offers some advantages to patients and providers, it also has some significant downsides.
There are several reasons for the increasing use of medical imaging tests buy they may not always benefit the patient
When is it simply avarice to profit at the expense of public health?
Sick people play a large role in driving antibiotic overuse.
First comes the disaster. What follows is predictable, but equally worrisome.
Should prisoners be allowed to donate organs in exchange for a reduced sentence?
Changes are needed to ready ourselves to treat new emerging infections
For good reason, other than the US, only one other country in the world allows drugs to be advertised directly to the public.
Small acts of kindness make a huge difference to patients and families
Good quality turns out to be complicated and unrelated to reimbursement rates
While properly ordered blood tests can help enormously with diagnosis, too often, blood tests are ordered without good reason.
Is there value in getting a second opinion? What happens when the two opinions differ from each other?
A look at some of the topics we covered throughout the past year.
These four words may not mean the same thing to all people
Too often the use of expensive and risky technologies catch on before we have good data suggesting benefit.
When a person is a victim of systemic injustice does that constitute a medical diagnosis?
The state of California is about to take on pharmaceutical companies by producing safe, effective, FDA approved insulin.
For over 100 years we’ve had a similar approach to understanding Alzheimer’s disease which hasn’t produced many benefits. Perhaps it’s time to cast the net more broadly?
In medical care job specifications are often blurred and a focus on the person can get lost
Until we know more, it makes sense to avoid microplastics as much as possible
Using participatory science to examine local air quality.
Unnecessary medical testing often leads to a “care cascade” that results in real harm and sky-high costs.
