Internal medicine journal
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Internal medicine journal · Dec 2020
Observational StudyAeromedical retrieval diagnostic trends during a period of Coronavirus 2019 lockdown.
Little is known on the trends of aeromedical retrieval (AR) during social isolation. ⋯ The lockdown period resulted in increased AR rates of circulatory and congenital conditions.
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Internal medicine journal · Dec 2020
Letter Case ReportsA case of delayed metastatic melanoma to the stomach.
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Internal medicine journal · Dec 2020
Ethics of information-gathering interventions in innovative practice.
Innovative practice involves medical interventions that deviate from standard practice in significant ways. For many patients, innovative practice offers the best chance of successful treatment. Because little is known about most innovative treatments, clinicians who engage in innovative practice might consider including extra procedures, such as scans or blood draws, to gather information about the innovation. ⋯ As a result, clinicians may assume that information-gathering interventions are ethically inappropriate and should not be used in innovative practice. This assumption can lead to seriously negative consequences, such as increasing the likelihood that harmful or ineffective innovations will be adopted and creating new barriers to the development of genuinely beneficial treatments. We argue that health care institutions need to promote the responsible use of information-gathering interventions as an adjunct to innovative practice, and that these interventions are not clinical research and should not be subject to research oversight.