Medical Interpreters and Patient Communications

Medical interpreters help patients, doctors communicate 

Kirsti Marohn and Stephanie Dickrell 
USA Today 
December 9, 2012

Health care regulations require medical providers who receive federal funding to provide interpreters. There's also growing research on the effects of bad communication on patient safety, said Izabel Arocha, executive director of the International Medical Interpreters Association.

Link to Podcast: The Ethics of Cultural Competency, Michael Brannigan, PhD, The Bioethics Channel, May 4, 2012

A Book on Pain 2013

A 2011 Report on Pain by the Institute of Medicine indicates some 100 million Americans suffer from chronic pain.

Author Judy Foreman will publish a book on pain in 2013 and talks about it in this edition of The Bioethics Channel with Lorell LaBoube. 

Science/Spirituality/Good Mix?

Intersection of science and spirituality

David O. Wiebers

Washington Post

December 6, 2012

Throughout my scientific training and subsequent career, I found myself consistently gravitating not only to the science and medical sections of bookstores but also to the metaphysical, New Age, self-help and spiritual sections of such stores in search of answers to many of the ongoing mysteries of science and to many of life’s most profound and perplexing questions.

Link to Podcast: The Legacy of Father Kevin O'Rourke, Sister Rosemary Flanigan and Bill Colby, JD, The Bioethics Channel, May 9, 2012

Medical interpreters

Medical interpreters help patients, doctors communicate

Kirsti Marohn and Stephanie Dickrell

USA Today

December 9, 2012

Link to Podcast: The Ethics of Cultural Competency, Michael Brannigan, PhD, The Bioethics Channel, May 4, 2012

Death of Death Panels?

John Carney

President/CEO Center for Practical Bioethics

December 11, 2012

Death panels -- a term that certainly influenced the healthcare reform debate in 2009. Now we’re facing 2013 and implementation of the affordable care act,  will the term be resurrected? Or can we put a stake in it and say death panels are dead? 

John Carney of the Center for Practical Bioethics talks about it in this edition of The Bioethics Channel with Lorell LaBoube.

From POLST to TPOPP

Judy Citko, JD

POLST coalitions -- Physician Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment -- are developing  across the country. A conference on that subject was held in Kansas City November 16 2012 and one of the guests was Judy Citko, Executive Director, of the Coalition for Compassionate Care of California. In this edition of The Bioethics Channel with Lorell LaBoube Judy explains the progress of POLST and the promise of TPOPP.

Link: Care at the End of Life, Editorial, New York Times, November 24, 2012. Standard devices have been greatly improved in recent years by adding medical orders signed by a doctor — known as Physician Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment, or POLST — to ensure that a patient’s wishes are followed.