Having the Final Say: Machine Support of Ethical Decisions of Doctors

Machines that support highly complex decisions of doctors have been a reality for almost half a century. In the 1950s, computer-supported medical diagnostic systems started with “punched cards in a shoe box”. In the 1960s and 1970s medicine was, to a certain extent, transformed into a quantitative science by intensive interdisciplinary research collaborations of experts from medicine, mathematics and electrical engineering; This was followed by a second shift in research on machine support of medical decisions from numerical probabilistic to knowledge based approaches. Solutions of the later form came to be known as (medical) expert systems, knowledge based systems research or Artificial In…

Effect of Neonatal Outcome Estimates on Decision-Making Preferences of Mothers Facing Preterm Birth

This randomized clinical trial examines the effect of neonatal outcomes on the preferences for expectant German mothers for life-sustaining treatments.

Providing Neonatal Outcome Estimates as an Intervention—Reply

Communication and ethical considerations for fertility preservation for patients with childhood, adolescent, and young adult cancer

Patients with childhood, adolescent, and young adult cancer who will be treated with gonadotoxic therapies are at increased risk for infertility. Many patients and their families desire biological children but effective communication about treatment-related infertility risk and procedures for fertility preservation does not always happen. The PanCareLIFE Consortium and the International Late Effects of Childhood Cancer Guideline Harmonization Group reviewed the literature and developed a clinical practice guideline that provides recommendations for ongoing communication methods for fertility preservation for patients who were diagnosed with childhood, adolescent, and young adult cancer at a…