Steve Joffe
Research ethics, pediatric ethics, cancer ethics, genomethics, science policy, pediatric oncology @ UPenn. Opinions my own. R/Ts ≠ likes.
Last synced from Twitter 18m ago
Suicidal Patients Often Excluded From Antidepressant Trials
Clinical trials of antidepressants that inform FDA approval decisions often exclude suicidal patients, leaving clinicians uncertain of the efficacy of these drugs in this patient population.
The Need to Improve the Clinical Utility of Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Tests: Either Too Narrow or Too Broad
This Viewpoint summarizes current shortcomings in direct-to-consumer genetic tests, which often lack clinical utility for consumers, and explains how tests that encompass entire genes and include only genes with well-established risk estimates and...
Does One Medicare Fit All? The Economics of Uniform Health Insurance Benefits
Steve Joffe
This paper from Mark Shepard, Kate Baicker, & @JonSkinner17 is worth a read. What if national health insurance were a basic (but adequate) benefit that individuals could "top up" if they wanted to (and could afford it)?
39h
Medicare’s Private Option Is Gaining Popularity, and Critics
As more Americans sign up for Medicare Advantage, detractors worry that it’s helping private insurers more than patients.
Drop in cancer deaths reflect failures of our society. Really - The Boston Globe
When deaths due to poverty, obesity, addiction, and depression rise, cancer death rates automatically fall, because the two categories of death share risk factors.
Steve Joffe
Drop in cancer deaths reflect failures of our society. Really -
Spot on, from @peterbachmd.
3d
Should 'broken' genes be fixed? My daughter changed my thinking
Our second daughter arrived in this world with a shock of white hair. Her albinism took her family on a journey of discovery.
A Coronavirus Quarantine in America Could Be a Giant Legal Mess
America’s defense against epidemics is divided among more than 2,000 individual public-health departments, which makes implementing a national strategy very difficult.
Pennsylvania prison suicides are at an all-time high. Families blame ‘reprehensible’ mental-health care.
The families of at least five suicide victims who died at Graterford state prison in 2017 and 2018 have filed lawsuits alleging that the deaths represent systemic failures.
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Steve Joffe
Terrific faculty opportunity in bioethics & palliative care at @seattlechildren's Hospital.
5d
Disclosure of Genetic Risk Revealed in a Research Study | NEJM
Clinical Decisions from The New England Journal of Medicine — Disclosure of Genetic Risk Revealed in a Research Study
Steve Joffe
Debate/poll in @NEJM about returning individual findings from genetic research. Without taking sides, & recognizing that the philosophy of causation is above my pay grade, this seems wrong. Failure to benefit ≠ inflict harm. nejm.org/doi/full/10.10… pic.twitter.com/rEo5L27EIT
5d
Coronavirus Live Updates: China Changes Diagnosis Criteria, Resulting in Confusion
The way China counts confirmed cases of the virus changed for the second time in a week, muddling the data, confusing scientists and resulting in a drop in new infections.
Steve Joffe
While we can’t say for sure that these deaths were due to the quarantine, this is looking increasingly like a catastrophic decision.
5d
Scientist decries 'completely chaotic' conditions on cruise ship Japan quarantined after viral outbreak
Japanese government also slow to release epidemiological data about the Diamond Princess, critics say
Cambodia’s Coronavirus Complacency May Exact a Global Toll
After a cruise ship docked in Cambodia, passengers streamed off the ship, maskless, and fears are rising that the country could become a vector of transmission.
California man freed after 15 years in prison thanks to genealogy website data
Authorities used DNA links developed through publicly available genealogical websites to free man wrongfully convicted of killing housemate
Steve Joffe
First time I have seen genetic genealogy used to exonerate rather than to charge someone. From @guardian.
6d
HAMRIC, ANN
HAMRIC, Ann Baile. Until the evening of February 9, 2020, Dr. Ann Baile Hamric - mother, grandmother, daughter, sister, colleague, teacher and friend - lived a deliberately full, vibrant and
Steve Joffe
I am so sorry to hear of Anne Hamric's passing. Anne was an international leader in nursing ethics and a powerful voice for attention to moral distress in health care.
7d
Coronavirus Updates: Evacuated Americans Carried Virus From Cruise Ship to Airplane
Fourteen passengers, who were believed to be well before they were evacuated from a cruise ship in Japan on Monday, were found to be infected while boarding a charter plane to the United States.
Globalized Science in a Deglobalizing World
The arrest of Harvard chemist and nanobiologist Charles Lieber on charges of lying about his research funding from China encapsulates two phenomena currently in tension: the global nature of modern science and attempts to nationalize the fruits of...
25 medical pioneers to celebrate this Black History Month: In honor of Black History Month, here are 25 exceptional clinicians and healthcare professionals who advanced medicine and race relations in the U.S.
In honor of Black History Month, here are 25 exceptional clinicians and healthcare professionals who advanced medicine and race relations in the U.S.
She Didn’t Want a Pelvic Exam. She Received One Anyway.
Medical schools and students are grappling with an unsettling practice: Performing pelvic exams on unconscious, non-consenting patients.