New article: Data protection during the coronavirus crisis, by Christophe Olivier Schneble, Prof. Bernice Simone Elger, and Dr. David Martin Shaw

The SARS‐CoV‐2 virus has caused a worldwide pandemic with many deaths (WHO, 2020b) and healthcare systems being pushed to their limits. This makes it all the more important to identify infected people early on and to ensure that people…

New Article: Invisible Enemies: Coronavirus and Other Hidden Threats by Dr. David Shaw

To say that coronavirus is highly visible is a massive understatement in terms of its omnipresence in our lives and media coverage concerning it, yet also clearly untrue in terms of the virus itself. COVID-19 is our invisible enemy,…

New article: Uncertainties about the need for ethics approval in Switzerland: a mixed-methods study, by V. Gloy, S. McLennan, M. Rinderknecht, B. Ley, B. Meier, S. Driessen, P. Gervasoni, B. Hirschel, P. Benkert, I. Gilles, E. von Elm and M. Briel

To ensure ethical oversight, researchers wanting to conduct “research” involving human beings are typically required to obtain prior approval from an independent ethics committee. However, it can sometimes be unclear if a project needs to…

Special Issue: TB and Ethics in the International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease

Professor Bernice Elger contributed to the special issue TB and Ethics in the International Journal of Tubercolosis and Lung Disease with an article entitled: Ethical issues in tuberculosis screening and the use of new drugs for prisoners

New article: Working Through Ethics Review of Big Data Research Projects: An Investigation into the Experiences of Swiss and American Researchers, by Maddalena Favaretto, Dr. Eva De Clercq, Prof. Matthias Briel and Prof. Bernice Elger

The employment of Big Data as an increasingly used research method has introduced novel challenges to ethical research practices and to ethics committees (ECs) globally. The aim of this study is to explore the experiences of scholars with…

New article: Acute and transitional care or rehabilitation? Retrospective analysis of discharge planning from a municipal hospital in Switzerland, by L. Kollbrunner, M. Rost, I. Koné, B. Zimmermann, Y. Padrutt, T. Wangmo & B. Elger

Due to rising health care costs, in 2012 Switzerland introduced SwissDRG, a reimbursement system for hospitals based on lump sum per case. To circumvent possible negative consequences like reduction in length of stay, acute and transitional…

New article: Rejected Online Feedback From a Swiss Physician Rating Website Between 2008 and 2017: Analysis of 2352 Ratings, by Dr. Stuart Mc Lennan

Previous research internationally has only analyzed publicly available feedback on physician rating websites (PRWs). However, it appears that many PRWs are not publishing all the feedback they receive. Analysis of this rejected feedback…

Current controversy: Withholding conflicts of interest: the many flaws of the new ICMJE disclosure form. By Dr. David Shaw

In this article, I describe and analyse the proposed new International Committee of Medical Journal Editors form for disclosing conflicts of interest and conclude that it has many flaws. The form does not mention ‘conflicts of interest’…

Paul Schotsmans Prize 2019 goes to Georg Starke

Paul Schotsmans Prize 2019, European Association of Centres of Medical Ethics (EACME). Awarded during the annual EACME conference in Oxford to Georg Starke.

Vortrag: Die Begrenztheit der menschlichen Existenz: Überlegungen aus philosophischer und medizinischer Sicht

Vortrag mit der Philosophin Dr. phil. Isabelle Wienand (IBMB)