Informed Consent
Voluntary authorization, by a patient or research subject, with full comprehension of the risks involved, for diagnostic or investigative procedures, and for medical and surgical treatment.
Consent Forms
Documents describing a medical treatment or research project, including proposed procedures, risks, and alternatives, that are to be signed by an individual, or the individual's proxy, to indicate his/her understanding of the document and a willingness to undergo the treatment or to participate in the research.
Surrogate Mothers
Women who allow themselves to be impregnated with the understanding that the offspring are to be given over to the parents who have commissioned the surrogate.
Presumed Consent
An institutional policy of granting authority to health personnel to perform procedures on patients or to remove organs from cadavers for transplantation unless an objection is registered by family members or by the patient prior to death. This also includes emergency care of minors without prior parental consent.
Confidentiality
Parental Consent
Disclosure
Revealing of information, by oral or written communication.
Third-Party Consent
Informed consent given by someone other than the patient or research subject.
Isoantigens
Antigens that exist in alternative (allelic) forms in a single species. When an isoantigen is encountered by species members who lack it, an immune response is induced. Typical isoantigens are the BLOOD GROUP ANTIGENS.
Skin Transplantation
Computer Security
Protective measures against unauthorized access to or interference with computer operating systems, telecommunications, or data structures, especially the modification, deletion, destruction, or release of data in computers. It includes methods of forestalling interference by computer viruses or so-called computer hackers aiming to compromise stored data.
Lymphocyte Culture Test, Mixed
Measure of histocompatibility at the HL-A locus. Peripheral blood lymphocytes from two individuals are mixed together in tissue culture for several days. Lymphocytes from incompatible individuals will stimulate each other to proliferate significantly (measured by tritiated thymidine uptake) whereas those from compatible individuals will not. In the one-way MLC test, the lymphocytes from one of the individuals are inactivated (usually by treatment with MITOMYCIN or radiation) thereby allowing only the untreated remaining population of cells to proliferate in response to foreign histocompatibility antigens.
Tobacco Industry
Insurance, Health, Reimbursement
Mental Competency
Immune Tolerance
The specific failure of a normally responsive individual to make an immune response to a known antigen. It results from previous contact with the antigen by an immunologically immature individual (fetus or neonate) or by an adult exposed to extreme high-dose or low-dose antigen, or by exposure to radiation, antimetabolites, antilymphocytic serum, etc.
Transplantation, Homologous
Tissue Donors
Graft Survival
Minors
A person who has not attained the age at which full civil rights are accorded.
Internet
A loose confederation of computer communication networks around the world. The networks that make up the Internet are connected through several backbone networks. The Internet grew out of the US Government ARPAnet project and was designed to facilitate information exchange.
Research Subjects
United States
The term "United States" in a medical context often refers to the country where a patient or study participant resides, and is not a medical term per se, but relevant for epidemiological studies, healthcare policies, and understanding differences in disease prevalence, treatment patterns, and health outcomes across various geographic locations.
Informed Consent By Minors
Graft Rejection
Nontherapeutic Human Experimentation
Human experimentation that is not intended to benefit the subjects on whom it is performed. Phase I drug studies (CLINICAL TRIALS, PHASE I AS TOPIC) and research involving healthy volunteers are examples of nontherapeutic human experimentation.
User-Computer Interface
Ethics, Research
The moral obligations governing the conduct of research. Used for discussions of research ethics as a general topic.
Questionnaires
Personal Autonomy
T-Lymphocytes
Lymphocytes responsible for cell-mediated immunity. Two types have been identified - cytotoxic (T-LYMPHOCYTES, CYTOTOXIC) and helper T-lymphocytes (T-LYMPHOCYTES, HELPER-INDUCER). They are formed when lymphocytes circulate through the THYMUS GLAND and differentiate to thymocytes. When exposed to an antigen, they divide rapidly and produce large numbers of new T cells sensitized to that antigen.
Biological Specimen Banks
Ethics, Medical
The principles of professional conduct concerning the rights and duties of the physician, relations with patients and fellow practitioners, as well as actions of the physician in patient care and interpersonal relations with patient families.
Cost-Benefit Analysis
A method of comparing the cost of a program with its expected benefits in dollars (or other currency). The benefit-to-cost ratio is a measure of total return expected per unit of money spent. This analysis generally excludes consideration of factors that are not measured ultimately in economic terms. Cost effectiveness compares alternative ways to achieve a specific set of results.
Comprehension
The act or fact of grasping the meaning, nature, or importance of; understanding. (American Heritage Dictionary, 4th ed) Includes understanding by a patient or research subject of information disclosed orally or in writing.
Therapeutic Human Experimentation
Software
Ethics Committees, Research
Hospital or other institutional committees established to protect the welfare of research subjects. Federal regulations (the "Common Rule" (45 CFR 46)) mandate the use of these committees to monitor federally-funded biomedical and behavioral research involving human subjects.
Patient Rights
Fundamental claims of patients, as expressed in statutes, declarations, or generally accepted moral principles. (Bioethics Thesaurus) The term is used for discussions of patient rights as a group of many rights, as in a hospital's posting of a list of patient rights.
Beneficence
The state or quality of being kind, charitable, or beneficial. (from American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed). The ethical principle of BENEFICENCE requires producing net benefit over harm. (Bioethics Thesaurus)
Refusal to Participate
Refusal to take part in activities or procedures that are requested or expected of an individual. This may include refusal by HEALTH PERSONNEL to participate in specific medical procedures or refusal by PATIENTS or members of the public to take part in clinical trials or health promotion programs.
Biomedical Research
Genetic Research
Child Advocacy
Decision Making
Judicial Role
The kind of action or activity proper to the judiciary, particularly its responsibility for decision making.
Paternalism
Interference with the FREEDOM or PERSONAL AUTONOMY of another person, with justifications referring to the promotion of the person's good or the prevention of harm to the person. (from Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, 1995); more generally, not allowing a person to make decisions on his or her own behalf.
Legal Guardians
Ethics, Clinical
Patient Advocacy
Promotion and protection of the rights of patients, frequently through a legal process.
Tissue and Organ Procurement
The administrative procedures involved with acquiring TISSUES or organs for TRANSPLANTATION through various programs, systems, or organizations. These procedures include obtaining consent from TISSUE DONORS and arranging for transportation of donated tissues and organs, after TISSUE HARVESTING, to HOSPITALS for processing and transplantation.
Patient Selection
Clinical Trials as Topic
Works about pre-planned studies of the safety, efficacy, or optimum dosage schedule (if appropriate) of one or more diagnostic, therapeutic, or prophylactic drugs, devices, or techniques selected according to predetermined criteria of eligibility and observed for predefined evidence of favorable and unfavorable effects. This concept includes clinical trials conducted both in the U.S. and in other countries.
Public Opinion
The attitude of a significant portion of a population toward any given proposition, based upon a measurable amount of factual evidence, and involving some degree of reflection, analysis, and reasoning.
Liability, Legal
Moral Obligations
Duties that are based in ETHICS, rather than in law.
Privacy
Great Britain
Great Britain is not a medical term, but a geographical name for the largest island in the British Isles, which comprises England, Scotland, and Wales, forming the major part of the United Kingdom.
Patient Education as Topic
The teaching or training of patients concerning their own health needs.
Patient Participation
Researcher-Subject Relations
Bioethical Issues
Clusters of topics that fall within the domain of BIOETHICS, the field of study concerned with value questions that arise in biomedicine and health care delivery.
Research Design
Truth Disclosure
Truthful revelation of information, specifically when the information disclosed is likely to be psychologically painful ("bad news") to the recipient (e.g., revelation to a patient or a patient's family of the patient's DIAGNOSIS or PROGNOSIS) or embarrassing to the teller (e.g., revelation of medical errors).
Malpractice
Dissent and Disputes
Differences of opinion or disagreements that may arise, for example, between health professionals and patients or their families, or against a political regime.
Ethics
Social Responsibility
Patient Identification Systems
Access to Information
Conflict of Interest
A situation in which an individual might benefit personally from official or professional actions. It includes a conflict between a person's private interests and official responsibilities in a position of trust. The term is not restricted to government officials. The concept refers both to actual conflict of interest and the appearance or perception of conflict.
Treatment Refusal
Communication
Mentally Ill Persons
Ethics Committees
Committees established by professional societies, health facilities, or other institutions to consider decisions that have bioethical implications. The role of these committees may include consultation, education, mediation, and/or review of policies and practices. Committees that consider the ethical dimensions of patient care are ETHICS COMMITTEES, CLINICAL; committees established to protect the welfare of research subjects are ETHICS COMMITTEES, RESEARCH.
Attitude
Ethical Review
A formal process of examination of patient care or research proposals for conformity with ethical standards. The review is usually conducted by an organized clinical or research ethics committee (CLINICAL ETHICS COMMITTEES or RESEARCH ETHICS COMMITTEES), sometimes by a subset of such a committee, an ad hoc group, or an individual ethicist (ETHICISTS).
Duty to Warn
A health professional's obligation to breach patient CONFIDENTIALITY to warn third parties of the danger of their being assaulted or of contracting a serious infection.
Federal Government
Professional-Family Relations
The interactions between the professional person and the family.
Persons
Persons as individuals (e.g., ABORTION APPLICANTS) or as members of a group (e.g., HISPANIC AMERICANS). It is not used for members of the various professions (e.g., PHYSICIANS) or occupations (e.g., LIBRARIANS) for which OCCUPATIONAL GROUPS is available.
Parents
Persons functioning as natural, adoptive, or substitute parents. The heading includes the concept of parenthood as well as preparation for becoming a parent.
Family
A social group consisting of parents or parent substitutes and children.
Bioethics
A branch of applied ethics that studies the value implications of practices and developments in life sciences, medicine, and health care.
Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic
Helsinki Declaration
An international agreement of the World Medical Association which offers guidelines for conducting experiments using human subjects. It was adopted in 1962 and revised by the 18th World Medical Assembly at Helsinki, Finland in 1964. Subsequent revisions were made in 1975, 1983, 1989, and 1996. (From Encyclopedia of Bioethics, rev ed, 1995)
Research
Critical and exhaustive investigation or experimentation, having for its aim the discovery of new facts and their correct interpretation, the revision of accepted conclusions, theories, or laws in the light of newly discovered facts, or the practical application of such new or revised conclusions, theories, or laws. (Webster, 3d ed)
Selection Bias
Internationality
Europe
Anniversaries and Special Events
Anonymous Testing
Identification (Psychology)
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
Prospective Studies
Observation of a population for a sufficient number of persons over a sufficient number of years to generate incidence or mortality rates subsequent to the selection of the study group.
Professional Staff Committees
Jurisprudence
Research Personnel
Those individuals engaged in research.
Guidelines as Topic
A systematic statement of policy rules or principles. Guidelines may be developed by government agencies at any level, institutions, professional societies, governing boards, or by convening expert panels. The text may be cursive or in outline form but is generally a comprehensive guide to problems and approaches in any field of activity. For guidelines in the field of health care and clinical medicine, PRACTICE GUIDELINES AS TOPIC is available.
Posthumous Conception
Risk Assessment
Vulnerable Populations
Groups of persons whose range of options is severely limited, who are frequently subjected to COERCION in their DECISION MAKING, or who may be compromised in their ability to give INFORMED CONSENT.
Data Collection
Systematic gathering of data for a particular purpose from various sources, including questionnaires, interviews, observation, existing records, and electronic devices. The process is usually preliminary to statistical analysis of the data.
Emergency Medicine
Documentation
Universities
Educational institutions providing facilities for teaching and research and authorized to grant academic degrees.
Treatment Outcome
England
I'm sorry for any confusion, but 'England' is not a medical term and does not have a medical definition. England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom, known for its rich history, cultural heritage, and contributions to medical science. However, in a medical context, it may refer to the location of a patient, healthcare provider, or research study, but it is not a term with a specific medical meaning.
Practice Guidelines as Topic
Directions or principles presenting current or future rules of policy for assisting health care practitioners in patient care decisions regarding diagnosis, therapy, or related clinical circumstances. The guidelines may be developed by government agencies at any level, institutions, professional societies, governing boards, or by the convening of expert panels. The guidelines form a basis for the evaluation of all aspects of health care and delivery.
Behaviorism
Patient Satisfaction
Civil Rights
Legal guarantee protecting the individual from attack on personal liberties, right to fair trial, right to vote, and freedom from discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, or national origin. (from http://www.usccr.gov/ accessed 1/31/2003)
Proxy
Human Rights
Expert Testimony
AIDS Serodiagnosis
Pilot Projects
Attitude of Health Personnel
Attitudes of personnel toward their patients, other professionals, toward the medical care system, etc.
Cross-Sectional Studies
Copyright
It is a form of protection provided by law. In the United States this protection is granted to authors of original works of authorship, including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works. This protection is available to both published and unpublished works. (from Circular of the United States Copyright Office, 6/30/2008)
Genetic Privacy
The protection of genetic information about an individual, family, or population group, from unauthorized disclosure.
Interviews as Topic
Societies, Medical
Societies whose membership is limited to physicians.
Risk Management
The process of minimizing risk to an organization by developing systems to identify and analyze potential hazards to prevent accidents, injuries, and other adverse occurrences, and by attempting to handle events and incidents which do occur in such a manner that their effect and cost are minimized. Effective risk management has its greatest benefits in application to insurance in order to avert or minimize financial liability. (From Slee & Slee: Health care terms, 2d ed)
Health Policy
Glycosuria, Renal
Qualitative Research
Any type of research that employs nonnumeric information to explore individual or group characteristics, producing findings not arrived at by statistical procedures or other quantitative means. (Qualitative Inquiry: A Dictionary of Terms Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1997)
Hallucinogens
Drugs capable of inducing illusions, hallucinations, delusions, paranoid ideations, and other alterations of mood and thinking. Despite the name, the feature that distinguishes these agents from other classes of drugs is their capacity to induce states of altered perception, thought, and feeling that are not experienced otherwise.
Negotiating
The process of bargaining in order to arrive at an agreement or compromise on a matter of importance to the parties involved. It also applies to the hearing and determination of a case by a third party chosen by the parties in controversy, as well as the interposing of a third party to reconcile the parties in controversy.
Public Policy
Brain Death
A state of prolonged irreversible cessation of all brain activity, including lower brain stem function with the complete absence of voluntary movements, responses to stimuli, brain stem reflexes, and spontaneous respirations. Reversible conditions which mimic this clinical state (e.g., sedative overdose, hypothermia, etc.) are excluded prior to making the determination of brain death. (From Adams et al., Principles of Neurology, 6th ed, pp348-9)
Ethics, Professional
The principles of proper conduct concerning the rights and duties of the professional, relations with patients or consumers and fellow practitioners, as well as actions of the professional and interpersonal relations with patient or consumer families. (From Stedman, 25th ed)
Social Values
Embryo Disposition
Surgical Procedures, Operative
Aminosalicylic Acid
Control Groups
Propaganda
Patients
Retrospective Studies
Studies used to test etiologic hypotheses in which inferences about an exposure to putative causal factors are derived from data relating to characteristics of persons under study or to events or experiences in their past. The essential feature is that some of the persons under study have the disease or outcome of interest and their characteristics are compared with those of unaffected persons.
Risk Factors
Legislation, Medical
Multimedia
Social Facilitation
Advisory Committees
Groups set up to advise governmental bodies, societies, or other institutions on policy. (Bioethics Thesaurus)
Clinical Protocols
Codes of Ethics
Genetic Testing
Detection of a MUTATION; GENOTYPE; KARYOTYPE; or specific ALLELES associated with genetic traits, heritable diseases, or predisposition to a disease, or that may lead to the disease in descendants. It includes prenatal genetic testing.
Pregnancy
Parental Notification
Surgical Procedures, Elective
Surgery which could be postponed or not done at all without danger to the patient. Elective surgery includes procedures to correct non-life-threatening medical problems as well as to alleviate conditions causing psychological stress or other potential risk to patients, e.g., cosmetic or contraceptive surgery.
Fraud
Australia
Cooperative Behavior
The interaction of two or more persons or organizations directed toward a common goal which is mutually beneficial. An act or instance of working or acting together for a common purpose or benefit, i.e., joint action. (From Random House Dictionary Unabridged, 2d ed)
International Cooperation
Defensive Medicine
The alterations of modes of medical practice, induced by the threat of liability, for the principal purposes of forestalling lawsuits by patients as well as providing good legal defense in the event that such lawsuits are instituted.
Age Factors
Age as a constituent element or influence contributing to the production of a result. It may be applicable to the cause or the effect of a circumstance. It is used with human or animal concepts but should be differentiated from AGING, a physiological process, and TIME FACTORS which refers only to the passage of time.
Family Planning Policy
Records as Topic
Principle-Based Ethics
An approach to ethics that focuses on theories of the importance of general principles such as respect for autonomy, beneficence/nonmaleficence, and justice.
Midwestern United States
The geographic area of the midwestern region of the United States in general or when the specific state or states are not indicated. The states usually included in this region are Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin.
Motivation
Therapeutic Misconception
Misunderstanding among individuals, frequently research subjects, of scientific methods such as randomization and placebo controls.
Resource Allocation
Bendroflumethiazide
Clinical Trials, Phase I as Topic
Works about studies performed to evaluate the safety of diagnostic, therapeutic, or prophylactic drugs, devices, or techniques in healthy subjects and to determine the safe dosage range (if appropriate). These tests also are used to determine pharmacologic and pharmacokinetic properties (toxicity, metabolism, absorption, elimination, and preferred route of administration). They involve a small number of persons and usually last about 1 year. This concept includes phase I studies conducted both in the U.S. and in other countries.
Conflict (Psychology)
The internal individual struggle resulting from incompatible or opposing needs, drives, or external and internal demands. In group interactions, competitive or opposing action of incompatibles: antagonistic state or action (as of divergent ideas, interests, or persons). (from Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 10th ed)
Neoplasms
Patient Acceptance of Health Care
The seeking and acceptance by patients of health service.
Advance Directives
State Medicine
Socioeconomic Factors
Focus Groups
A method of data collection and a QUALITATIVE RESEARCH tool in which a small group of individuals are brought together and allowed to interact in a discussion of their opinions about topics, issues, or questions.
Nurse Anesthetists
Designer Drugs
Drugs designed and synthesized, often for illegal street use, by modification of existing drug structures (e.g., amphetamines). Of special interest are MPTP (a reverse ester of meperidine), MDA (3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine), and MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine). Many drugs act on the aminergic system, the physiologically active biogenic amines.