AI doctor's note, ethical drug pricing, reading the brain, AI & healthcare conference
Latest News
March 20, 2025
You Left Your Doctor an Electronic Message; What if AI Responds? Study looks at ethics of patients' preferences.
How do patients feel about the use of artificial intelligence to draft responses in patient-clinician portal messages? A new study, co-authored by Hastings Center President Vardit Ravitsky, found that most patients actually prefer messages that are written by AI, but their satisfaction drops when they learn that AI wrote them. Does that mean that patients should not be told about the role AI played? The paper argues that it would be unethical, since patients have the right to know. Read the study in JAMA Network Open.
Hot off the press: The day that the study was published, STAT’s AI Prognosis newsletter reported on it: The authors “discuss at length how much information patients need about AI — on one hand, patients have a right to know about the AI systems involved in their care and need to be able to consent in an informed way. But on the other hand, a bunch of technical jargon isn’t going to help the patient, either.” Read STAT’s AI Prognosis article. (Subscription required.)
What Is Ethical Drug Pricing? Read the latest chapter in Hastings Bioethics Briefings.
Many prescription drugs are prohibitively expensive. In the United States, brand-name prescription drug prices are higher than in other wealthy countries. What prices can be ethically justified? A new chapter in our Bioethics Briefings, written by Paul T. Menzel, examines this question and identifies the five most important elements in the ethical assessment of drug pricing. Read the “Ethical Drug Pricing.”
Learn more about Hastings Bioethics Briefings, your go-to source of overviews of issues in bioethics of high public interest.
Inferring Mental States from Brain Data: Ethical and Legal Questions New in the Neuroscience & Society Series
Several neurotechnologies aim to “read from” the brain, by collecting and interpreting data, and “write to” the brain, by modifying its activity. These technologies are therapeutically promising, and some are already licensed for medical uses. But the technologies also raise ethical and legal concerns, explored by Jennifer A. Chandler in the latest article in the Hastings Center Report’s Neuroscience & Society series. Read the article.
Neuroscience and Society is a three-year series of articles and essays on the ethical, legal, and social issues presented by emerging neuroscience. It is funded by the Dana Foundation. Learn more about the series and read previous pieces.
My Final Respects A bioethicist considers whether to consent to an autopsy for her mother.
“My mother’s untimely death raised many questions; there were no visible signs or symptoms that indicated she was nearing the end of her life. Within hours of her passing, as her surrogate decision-maker, I was faced with the decision to consent to an autopsy that might have helped explain the circumstances surrounding her death—a surprisingly difficult process I had not previously considered,” writes Hastings Center Fellow Faith E. Fletcher in JAMA. Read the essay. (Subscription required for full text.)
AI in Healthcare: Trust and Accountability Register for Cedars-Sinai and Hastings conference.
Cedars-Sinai and The Hastings Center are jointly organizing a timely conference on AI in healthcare. Through discussions with leading experts in the field, the event will address evolving ethical, societal, and legal issues raised by AI in medicine and biomedical research. The conference will take place on Friday, May 16 at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles. Registration is free but required. Register today.
The Hastings Center seeks to ensure responsible health and science policy and practice. We work to secure the wisest possible use of emerging technologies and fair, compassionate, and just health care for people across their lifespan.
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