Welcome to the Nexus of Ethics, Psychology, Morality, Philosophy and Health Care

Welcome to the nexus of ethics, psychology, morality, technology, health care, and philosophy
Showing posts with label Penalties. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Penalties. Show all posts

Friday, March 20, 2020

Oceanside council approves its first ethics code

Oceanside Civic CenterPhil Diehl
San Diego Union Tribune
Originally posted 1 March 20

Facing a public backlash over infighting, campaign contributions and alleged conflicts of interest, the Oceanside City Council unanimously approved its first code of ethics.

“This is a start,” said Councilwoman Esther Sanchez before Wednesday’s vote. The need for a policy is evident from the efforts underway to recall two council members (including herself) and for a referendum to overturn the council’s recent approval of a controversial Morro Hills development project, she said.

“We need to respect each other, and we need to respect the public,” Sanchez said, noting that she too at times has been critical of her fellow council members. “Sometimes it gets personal ... we need to do better.”

Residents said the policy should go further to include more specifics and penalties. Some suggested the city should limit campaign contributions, or not allow council members to vote on projects proposed by developers who contribute to their election campaigns.

The info is here.

Thursday, February 13, 2020

FDA and NIH let clinical trial sponsors keep results secret and break the law

Charles Piller
sciencemag.org
Originally posted 13 Jan 20

For 20 years, the U.S. government has urged companies, universities, and other institutions that conduct clinical trials to record their results in a federal database, so doctors and patients can see whether new treatments are safe and effective. Few trial sponsors have consistently done so, even after a 2007 law made posting mandatory for many trials registered in the database. In 2017, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) tried again, enacting a long-awaited “final rule” to clarify the law’s expectations and penalties for failing to disclose trial results. The rule took full effect 2 years ago, on 18 January 2018, giving trial sponsors ample time to comply. But a Science investigation shows that many still ignore the requirement, while federal officials do little or nothing to enforce the law.

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Contacted for comment, none of the institutions disputed the findings of this investigation. In all 4768 trials Science checked, sponsors violated the reporting law more than 55% of the time. And in hundreds of cases where the sponsors got credit for reporting trial results, they have yet to be publicly posted because of quality lapses flagged by ClinicalTrials.gov staff.

The info is here.

Tuesday, February 6, 2018

State Supreme Court Establishes Right To Sue Over Medical Record Breaches

Edmund H. Mahony
Hartford Courant
Originally published January 10, 2018

The state Supreme Court established Thursday that patients in Connecticut have the right to sue doctors and other health care providers for the unauthorized and negligent disclosure of their confidential medical records.

The majority decision creates new state law and adds Connecticut to a growing number of states that allow patients to sue for damages over the release of private records by their physicians. Courts in Connecticut have held previously — as have courts elsewhere — that private suits were blocked by federal law under the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act or HIPAA law.

HIPAA laws establish procedures to protect medical records and empower government to impose civil and criminal penalties for violation. But HIPAA does not permit private suits to collect damages for unauthorized disclosures.

“Finally we have a remedy in Connecticut that recognizes that there is a duty of confidentiality, the breach of which can lead to compensation for damages,” said attorney Bruce L. Elstein of Trumbull, whose client, Emily Byrne, sued over an unauthorized release of her medical history.

The article is here.