Should Families Witness Death? Ethics of Detaining Patients

• Daniela J. Lamas, MD, makes a case for allowing family members to witness the death of a relative ~ Should Family Members See Patients Die in the I.C.U.? (New York Times)
• Should some patients who abuse opioids be involuntarily detained for observation and possibly treatment? Elizabeth A. Samuels, MD, MPH, MHS, and colleagues explore the ethics surrounding this type of practice ~ Will Emergency Holds Reduce Opioid Overdose Deaths? (New England Journal of Medicine)
• An algorithm often used to determine which patients need additional medical care helped magnify racial disparities, a recent analysis found. Carolyn Y. Johnson explores how the problem came to light and how the algorithm may have affected patient care ~ Racial bias in a medical algorithm favors white patients over sicker black patients (The Washington Post)
• Roy C. Ziegelstein, MD, and Deidra C. Crews, MD, ScM, discuss the importance of championing recruitment of underrepresented minority and challenges to progress ~ The Majority Subsidy (Annals of Internal Medicine)
• “[T]he people hardest hit when it comes to sleep deprivation are those we depend on the most for our health and safety,” writes Patti Neighmond who explores the consequences of this lack of sleep ~ Working Americans Are Getting Less Sleep, Especially Those Who Save Our Lives (NPR)
• Matthew Wynia, MD, MPH, examines the recent legal challenge to the Colorado End-of-Life Options Act and what the outcome of that case may mean for patient care ~ Colorado End-of-Life Options Act: A Clash of Organizational and Individual Conscience (JAMA)
• Scott D. Halpern, MD, PhD, explores the challenges of measuring whether care provided to seriously ill patients was indeed in line with their goals ~ Goal-Concordant Care — Searching for the Holy Grail (New England Journal of Medicine)

Fred N. Pelzman, MD, of Weill Cornell Internal Medicine Associates and weekly blogger for MedPage Today, follows what’s going on in the world of primary care medicine. Pelzman’s Picks is a compilation of links to blogs, articles, tweets, journal studies, opinion pieces, and news briefs related to primary care that caught his eye.