Clinical Ethics

Healthcare organizations are complex and the stakes are high, so it is essential that they prioritize ethical considerations. An ethical organization is guided by appropriate values and principles. In many cases, ethical issues arise not due to intended maleficence, but instead because the organization’s processes were not designed to prevent, identify, and correct ethical risks. From participating in hospital quality improvement projects to working with provincial leadership to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic, Canmore Ethics has the organizational ethics expertise to address any issue.

Every year, more jurisdictions are legalizing assisted dying. This trend marks a dramatic shift in medicine: where once physicians would do everything in their power to keep a patient alive, no matter the circumstances, now physicians are being asked to actively bring about a patient’s death. Adjusting to this new reality poses many challenges, from the fundamental (how should the healthcare system balance the rights of patients to access assisted dying with the rights of providers to act according to their conscience?) to the organizational (if a patient presents at a hospital wanting to be assessed for an assisted death, where should she be sent?). Dr. Mathison has worked on assisted dying implementation in Ontario and Alberta and has published peer-reviewed articles on the ethical and policy implications of assisted dying legalization.

The adoption of electronic medical records and other IT solutions has transformed healthcare. Providers can record and access data in ways that were previously impossible, patients can keep better track of their health information, and companies and researchers can conduct studies faster and more effectively than ever before. The newest phase of this revolution is using machine learning and artificial intelligence to guide care. Done correctly, the benefits of these technologies are substantial. From finding new solutions for antibiotic resistance to identifying which patients will most benefit from advance care planning conversations, machine learning has tremendous promise. However, there are also ethical risks, including racial bias. We bring an understanding of the organizational, clinical, and ethical pathways that are involved in proper technology deployment.

Personal health information is more plentiful and more accessible than ever before. Because of this, the ethics of privacy has become both more important and less clear-cut. When one data breach can undo years of trust and the public’s expectations about informational privacy are changing, organizations that merely focus on legal compliance are falling behind. We help organizations develop concrete, sustainable approaches to privacy.