News
-
IBME researchers to investigate coercive measures in intensive care
Together with colleagues PD Dr. Rouven Porz (Clinical Ethics, Inselspital Bern) and Prof. Bara Ricou (Intensive Care, Hospital Universitaire Genève), IBME Director Nikola Biller-Andorno has obtained a grant by the Käthe-Zingg-Schwichtenberg that will allow the team to explore the potential for improvement of the application of coercive measures in intensive care through patient-experience based research. Co-design Collaborators are Prof. Christoph A. Meier (Medical Director, University Hospital Basel), Prof. Paul Hoff (Deputy Head of Department, Psychiatric University Hospital Zurich) and lic. iur. Barbara Züst (Managing Director, SPO-Patientenschutz).
-
What to do if it is unclear whether a patient can decide for himself or herself?
The ability to judge is a basic prerequisite for patients to consent to medical treatment. The decision as to whether someone is able to judge or not therefore has far-reaching consequences. However, healthcare professionals often feel insecure when they need to clarify their judgement. The SAMS has drawn up medical-ethical guidelines to assist the practice.
-
New publication by Sarah Steinau and Nikola Biller-Andorno in Frontiers in Psychiatry, section Forensic Psychiatry.
Sarah Steinau and Nikola Biller-Andorno published a new article called „Conflicting Priorities Between Risk Management and Treatment of Schizophrenia in Swiss Forensic Services—A Case Report.“
The publication is part of the Frontiers in Psychiatry’s research topic „Caring for Those Who are Neglected and Forgotten: Psychiatry in Prison Environments“. It was written in a joint cooperation with the Psychiatric University Hospital Zurich.
-
Questioning the Questionnaire: Methodological Challenges in Measuring Subjective Quality of Life in Nursing Homes Using Cognitive Interviewing Techniques
New paper by Roger Meyer, Daniel Drewniak, Torsten Hovorka and Liane Schenk.
-
"Two concepts of group privacy" by Michele Loi and Markus Christen accepted at Computer, Privacy and Data Protection Conference 2019
The relevant notion of group privacy is one of inferential privacy. We provide reasons for being skeptical that the interest in inferential privacy should be protected by a right (either of individuals or groups) and show that it is especially implausible to conceive such right as a group right in the strong sense.
-
The Digital Phenotype: a Philosophical and Ethical Exploration. New paper by Michele Loi
This paper conceptualizes digital data as an extended phenotype of humans, that is as digital information produced by humans and affecting human behavior and culture. It argues that there are ethical obligations to persons affected by generalizable knowledge of a digital phenotype, not only those who are personally identifiable or involved in data generation.
-
A Moral Framework for Understanding of Fair ML through Economic Models of Equality of Opportunity
New publication by Hoda Heidari, Michele Loi, Krishna P. Gummadi, Andreas Krause accepted at ACM FAT* 2019 Conference
-
The Standard Account of Moral Distress and Why We Should Keep It - New paper by Joan McCarthy and Settimio Monteverde
In the last three decades, considerable theoretical and empirical research has been undertaken on the topic of moral distress among health professionals. Understood as a psychological and emotional response to the experience of moral wrongdoing, there is evidence to suggest that—if unaddressed—it contributes to staff demoralization, desensitization and burnout and, ultimately, to lower standards of patient safety and quality of care. However, more recently, the concept of moral distress has been subjected to important criticisms.
-
New publication by Ineichen, Shepherd and Sürücü on "Understanding the Effects and Adverse Reactions of Deep Brain Stimulation: Is It Time for a Paradigm Shift Toward a Focus on Heterogenous Biophysical Tissue Properties Instead of Electrode Design Only?". Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.
Deep brain stimulation (DBS) has been proven to be an effective treatment modality for various late-stage neurological and psychiatric disorders. However, knowledge on the electrical field distribution in the brain tissue is still scarce.
-
IBME DIPEx team attending the Dipex International annual meeting
Our colleagues engaged in DIPEx.ch have attended the Dipex International meeting at Ameland, in the Netherlands.
-
Machteld van den Berg wins the SSPH+ ScienceFlashTalk at the Swiss Public Health Conference in Neuchâtel on 7 November 2018
Machteld van den Berg has won the 2018 Swiss School of Public Health ScienceFlashTalk Award at the Swiss Public Health Conference in Neuchâtel on 7 November 2018.
-
Ning Wang is awarded the SNF Doc.Mobility Fellowship
PhD candidate Ning Wang is awarded the SNF Doc.Mobility Fellowship by the Swiss National Science Foundation.
-
Roberto Andorno as a speaker at a Web Seminar on Gene Editing and Human Rights
-
‘Je souffre donc je suis’: Dolorisme, Morphine and the Medico-Literary Resistance to Palliative Care in France
Anna Magdalena Elsner is giving a keynote lecture entitled ‘Je souffre donc je suis’: Dolorisme, Morphine and the Medico-Literary Resistance to Palliative Care in France’ at the Institute of Modern Languages Research at the School of Advanced Study, University of London.
-
Anna Magdalena Elsner presenting a paper at Cultural Crossings of Care Conference, University of Oslo
Keynotes will be given by Julia Kristeva, Brian Hurwitz, Trisha Greenhalgh and Marie-Rose Moro. Anna Magdalena Elsner will give a paper entitled 'Ruwen Agien and the spectre of dolorism haunting the Medical Humanities'.
-
Ning Wang invited as a panelist by Swissnex Boston
Ning Wang was invited to a panel discussion on "Aerial Humanitarians: Drones and Disaster Response" by Swissnex Boston. The panel was part of Swissnex Boston's event Aerial Futures: the Drone Frontier during the 2018 HUBweek in Boston, USA.
-
DIPEx Training at the Institute for Biomedical Ethics and History of Medicine
For the second time, the Institute for Biomedical Ethics and History of Medicine (IBME) of the University of Zurich was able to offer a specific training course for the development of the Swiss database DIPEx.ch - Database of Individual Patient Experiences.
-
New publication on organ donation by Christen and Gloor: Ethical relevance and factual deficiencies in the communication of specifics of DCDD (in German).
M. Christen and M. Gloor have published in Ethik in der Medizin a new paper on organ donation after circulatory determination of death.
-
IBME received a grant from the UZH North-South collaboration
Nikola Biller-Andorno and Valerie Luyckx together with Sonja Hartnack, Vetsuisse, obtained a grant from the UZH North-South collaboration to continue their work with Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda.
-
IBME elected as member of the board of EACME
The Institute of Biomedical Ethics and History of Medicine has been elected as a member of the board of EACME.
EACME, in full the European Association of Centres of Medical Ethics, was founded in the early 1980s by a small group of theologians, philosophers and medical doctors who were involved in the new discipline of medical ethics or, as it is now often called, bioethics.