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Telemedicine as a Tool to Bring Clinical Ethics Expertise to Remote Locations

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Abstract

The American Society for Bioethics and Humanities promulgated standards for clinical ethics consultants and is currently developing a national Quality Attestation in Clinical Ethics Consultation to assist facilities in ensuring that those performing clinical ethics consultations meet minimum standards. As the field moves towards such professionalization, there is a need to provide access to qualified clinical ethicists at a broad range of medical facilities. Currently, however, there are insufficient numbers of trained clinical ethicists to staff all healthcare facilities, and many facilities lack the necessary resources to hire staff clinical ethicists. In this review, we describe several models for providing expert clinical ethics support to remote facilities that lack access to qualified clinical ethicists. Based on this analysis, we recommend telemedicine as the optimal model providing expert support to local ethics committee members tasked with providing clinical ethics consultation services.

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Notes

  1. Based on personal communication with faculty at Baylor College of Medicine, Michigan State, and Medical College Wisconsin, which all have developed contracts with local facilities to provide HCEC services.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Naval Medical Center San Diego, 34800 Bob Wilson Drive, San Diego, CA, 92134, USA

    Alexander A. Kon & Melissa Garcia

  2. The University of California San Diego, San Diego, USA

    Alexander A. Kon

Authors
  1. Alexander A. Kon
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  2. Melissa Garcia
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Correspondence to Alexander A. Kon.

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The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Navy, Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government.

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Kon, A.A., Garcia, M. Telemedicine as a Tool to Bring Clinical Ethics Expertise to Remote Locations. HEC Forum 27, 189–199 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10730-015-9272-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10730-015-9272-x

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