Research Paper on "Emerging Issue That Pose New Ethical Dilemmas in Healthcare"

Research Paper 6 pages (2702 words) Sources: 4

[EXCERPT] . . . .

New Ethical Dilemmas in Healthcare

"Innovation testing" as an emerging issue in the health-care; which pose new ethical dilemmas in United States

The purpose of this paper is to discuss how "innovation testing" as an emerging issue in health-care, pose new ethical dilemmas in the United States; thereafter, give suggestions or recommendations based on the findings of the discussion.

According to Business Services Industry (2007), the medical technology industry is an ever-growing one, constantly fuelled by increasing demand from the medical fraternity. Business Services Industry claim that the ground-breaking innovations such as drug eluting stents, cardiac rhythm management devices, joint replacements, intravascular ultrasound, endoscopes, minimally invasive surgical devices, surgical staplers, and lasers in medicine have increased longevity and life expectancy. Business Services Industry (2007) declare that these innovations have dramatically improved overall treatment options for doctors and other medical practitioners by reducing the associated efforts and delivery time.

Lechleiter (2009) declares that "innovation testing" is an emerging issue posing two new ethical dilemmas in the United States health-care. According to Lechleiter, the first dilemma is set in laboratories and clinics, and it is a hopeful story of how innovation may continue to improve human health; while the other dilemma is set in Washington conference rooms and corporate boardrooms, and it concerns the reform of health-care access, financing and regulation. As a scientist who leads what he calls "the last unmerged large pharmaceutical company," Lechleiter (2009) is a rare player who moves between these two stages, however, he does so with a growing concern.

According to Lechleiter (2009), inventions such as biosynthetic human insulin, bone-forming agents for treating osteoporosis, new cancer therapies, and a first-ever treatment for severe sepsis have gone from glimmers of intuition to everyday medical tools. Lechleiter appreciates the fact that these innovations, which were due to "innovation testing," have transformed the most basic expectations of human life in the last century whereby nowadays, the average life expectancy at birth in the U.S. is 78 compared to when it was 57 in 1928. To justify the fact that every year life expectancy has increased and that this can be attributed to the availability of new medicines within a life span of five months; Lechleiter declares that according to a recent study by Columbia University economist Frank Lichtenberg, new medicines accounted for 40% of the increase in life expectancy in more than 50 countries in the last two decades of the 20th century.

United States vs. Europe on "innovation testing"

Christensen et al., (2007) and Nussbaum (2010) declare that the U.S. spends more money on health care innovation than any other nation. Mandel (2010) further asserts that when it comes to government spending on health Research and Development (R&D), the U.S. just blows away the rest of the world (those are the blue bars below).

Mandel explains that the data is from 2008 for all the countries, except for 2006 for Korea and 2005 for the UK). But surprisingly, Mandel notes, when it comes to government spending on non-health civilian R&D, the U.S. is actually lagging other major countries. Finally, Mandel declares that it appears that to some degree, the U.S. has gambled ITS economy on the success of life sciences innovation.

Source: Mandel, M. (2010). Is the U.S. Overweight on Health R&D?

However, Christensen et al., claims that most of these social investments by the United are used to maintain its status quo to the many less affluent countries that best it on basic health indicators such as infant mortality. For instance, Christensen et al., (2007) gives an example of Hospitals which typically use endowments to develop more sophisticated services for the limited number of patients they already serve; and as a result, they exclude the far broader population needing basic health care.

Consequently, Nussbaum (2010) declares that the government healthcare Research and Development has gone into life sciences that have not paid off (genome); or advanced medical procedures that are extremely expensive and help extremely few people. Nussbaum declares that in terms of longevity, the U.S. lags Europe and Asia. Therefore, Nussbaum declares that the U.S. healthcare needs platform innovation that uses social media to connect people to the medical system in new, cheaper, more personal and more productive ways. More so, Nussbaum claim that the U.S. healthcare also needs the kind of de-massing and decentralization that design and innovation consultants can provide.

Contrary, the Business Services Industry (2007) notes that in the past decade, home-based care has gained rapid importance in the United States. It notes that this segment that holds high potential for growth and innovation; has been another strong focus area of the medical technology industry. Business Services Industry further declares that apart from the United States being the largest market for medical technology, it is characterized by very high growth potential. It has been the cradle of innovation for many a revolutionary technology, with companies having spent an average of 11.4% of their sales on research and development in 2002.

On the other hand, according to Atlas (2009), medical care in the United States is derided as miserable compared to health care systems in the rest of the developed world. Economists, government officials, insurers and academics alike are beating the drum for a far larger government role in health care. Much of the public assumes their arguments are sound because the calls for change are so ubiquitous and the topic so complex. However, before turning to government as the solution, some ten unheralded facts about America's health care system below should be considered.

Concord Working Group (2008) and Verdecchia, et al. (2007) declares that Americans have better survival rates than Europeans for common cancers. They concurrently declare that breast cancer mortality is 52% higher in Germany than in the United States, and 88% higher in the United Kingdom. Prostate cancer mortality is 604% higher in the U.K. And 457% higher in Norway. The mortality rate for colorectal cancer among British men and women is about 40% higher.

U.S. Cancer Statistics, National Program of Cancer Registries, U.S. Centers for Disease Control; Canadian Cancer Society/National Cancer Institute of Canada; O'Neill and O'Neill (2007 concur that Americans have lower cancer mortality rates than Canadians. They argue that breast cancer mortality is 9% higher, prostate cancer is 184% higher and colon cancer mortality among men is about 10% higher than in the United States.

Schoffski (2002) and Tanner (2008) declare that Americans have a better access to treatment for chronic diseases than patients in other developed countries. In addition, Schoffski and Tanner claim that some 56% of Americans who could benefit are taking statins, which reduce cholesterol and protect against heart disease. By comparison, of those patients who could benefit from these drugs, only 36% of the Dutch, 29% of the Swiss, 26% of Germans, 23% of Britons and 17% of Italians receive them.

O'Neill and O'Neill (2007) proclaim that Americans have better access to preventive cancer screening than Canadians. They suggest that if we take the proportion of the appropriate-age population groups who have received recommended tests for breast, cervical, prostate and colon cancer: nine of 10 middle-aged American women (89%) have had a mammogram, compared to less than three-fourths of Canadians (72%); nearly all American women (96%) have had a pap smear, compared to less than 90% of Canadians; more than half of American men (54%) have had a PSA test, compared to less than 1 in 6 Canadians (16%); and finally, nearly one-third of Americans (30%) have had a colonoscopy, compared with less than 1 in 20 Canadians (5%).

Accordingly, O'Neill and O'Neill (2007) declare than lower income Americans are in better health than comparable Canadians. Twice as many American seniors with below-median incomes self-report "excellent" health compared to Canadian seniors (11.7% versus 5.8%). Conversely, they farther claim that white Canadian young adults with below-median incomes are 20% more likely than lower income Americans to describe their health as "fair or poor."

Esmail, Michael and Bank (2007); Esmail and Wrona (2008); Willcox, et al., (2007); O'Neill and O'Neill (2007); and Williams, et al. (2007) concur that Americans spend less time waiting for care than patients in Canada and the U.K. They concur that Canadian and British patients wait about twice as long, sometimes more than a year, to see a specialist, to have elective surgery like hip replacements or to get radiation treatment for cancer. All told, 827,429 people are waiting for some type of procedure in Canada (Esmail, Michael and Bank, 2007). Besides, Esmail, Michael and Bank (2007) claim that in England, nearly 1.8 million people are waiting for a hospital admission or outpatient treatment

Atlas (2009) argue that people in countries with more government control of health care are highly dissatisfied and believe reform is needed. More than 70% of German, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand and British adults say their health system needs either "fundamental change" or "complete rebuilding" (Schoen, et al., 2007).

According to O'Neill and O'Neill (2007), Americans are more satisfied with the care they receive than Canadians.… READ MORE

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