Letter to the Editor
Using artificial intelligence as an ethics advisor
Dear Editor,
Ethical dilemmas are common in the practice of medicine and can lead to an array of seemingly reasonable decisions unless policies or regulations mandate certain actions. Choosing the appropriate solution requires not only biomedical evidence, but also requires the balancing of possibly divergent preferences, values, contextual factors and...
Commentary
Artificial intelligence in medicine: Ethical, social and legal perspectives
“Our future is a race between the growing power of our technology and the wisdom with which we use it. Let's make sure that wisdom wins.” — Stephen Hawking
The tsunami of artificial intelligence (AI) has arrived in medicine, penetrating every clinical specialty. Deep learning algorithms enable highly sensitive and...
Commentary
Experience with a Nine-step Policy Dealing with Requests for Medically Inappropriate Interventions for Cancer
Although great strides have been made in treating cancers, a significant number of patients still reach the point at which no curative treatment is available. Physicians then face the difficult task of informing patients that, although palliation is always possible, cure is not.
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Others
9th Chapter of Surgeons’ Lecture: The Orthopaedic Surgeon: Historical Perspective, Ethical Considerations and the Future
The legacy of caring and humanitarianism has been the mission of the medical profession since the founding of Singapore by Sir Stamford Raffles in 1819. To this small fishing village in the Riau Archipelago on the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula came traders and entrepreneurs from China, India...
Others
Design of Phase I and II Clinical Trials in Oncology and Ethical Issues Involved
Drug development is costly and time-consuming in terms of economic, patient and research resources. An integrated effort involving academia, industry, and regulatory authorities is needed to ensure novel, effective therapies continue to be approved for clinical use.
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Editorial
Evaluating Drugs from Cradle to Grave—Evolving Systems for a Complex Activity
Are medicines dangerous chemicals or life enhancing agents? The answer is ‘Both of those things, often at the same time, and worse in the wrong hands’.
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Original Article
The Practice of Foregoing Life Support in the Critically Ill “Old Old”: A Singapore Perspective
Studies on the foregoing of life support (FLS) in North America, Europe and Australia have shown diversity in terms of the incidence, decision-making process and outcome. However, they have not specifically looked into such practice in the elderly.
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Others
5th College of Physicians Lecture – A Physician’s Odyssey: Recollections and Reflections
Allow me to thank you Mr President and your Council for asking me to deliver the 5th College of Physicians Lecture. Your President has suggested that with over 50 years of association with Medicine, the title be “In the Service of the Medical Profession”.
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Review Article
Maternal and Fetal Best Interests in Day-to-Day Obstetrics
When we discuss maternal and fetal best interests in an ethical context, we have to deliberate on the morality of healthcare, including the morality of physicians, patients and the institutions that organise, deliver, pay for and make policies. It is the intention of this article to confine our discussion...
Review Article
The Ethics of Responding to a Novel Pandemic
“A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world.”
-Albert Camus (1957 Nobel Prize for Literature)
As the microscopic ‘wild beasts’ of infectious diseases are loosed upon this world with an ever increasing frequency in recent years, there is a corresponding need for us to come up with...
Review Article
Hospital Policy on Medical Futility — Does it Help in Conflict Resolution and Ensuring Good End-of-Life Care?
The concept of medical futility has been present since antiquity, and traditionally marked the shift in the primary goal of care to providing physical and emotional comfort. Only by following the declaration of futility could interventions be designed to relieve distress and pain for the patient, and bringing a...