Article Text
Abstract
Although there is wide agreement that ethics consults are at risk for conflicts of interest (COIs), ethics consultants (ECs) have limited guidance with regard to how to identify and approach COIs. We aim to address these concerns and provide practical guidance. We will define and consider four categories of COIs: consult type, team composition, dual clinical roles and other concerns. We will define and consider six actions available for ECs to take in response to COIs: no action, disclosure only, obtaining a second opinion, referring to another EC, referring to an institutional ethics committee or seeking an outside consult. We will then propose a points-based algorithm for ECs to use to determine the appropriate response to COI. Finally, we will discuss the strengths and limitations of our proposed algorithm.
- ethics committees/consultation
- clinical ethics
Data availability statement
There are no data in this work.
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