Abstract: Drug use, particularly the opioid epidemic, threatens the health and well-being of entire regions, communities, families, and individuals. Addressing the epidemic requires action at multiple levels from individual provider practices to state and national policies. At each level, ethical and legal issues arise. Simultaneously, blockbuster (and budget-busting) new drugs promise life-saving and quality-of life enhancing benefits to patients suffering from chronic and acute conditions, but threaten the fiscal viability of our healthcare system. The pharmaceutical industry’s social roles indeed raise ethical concerns about the health of our research and regulatory infrastructures and about transparency within the provider-patient relationship. This conference featured three lectures in the morning with concurrent breakout sessions in the afternoon on ethical concerns regarding: substance-using pregnant women, medical use of marijuana, conflicts of interest, adherence to cancer treatment, and pharmacogenomics.
Location and Address
Scaife Hall