Dec 9, 2020

BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL: Lisa Bero, PhD and co-authors found a fairly consistent association between financial conflicts of interest and recommendations that favor clinical interventions relevant to the conflict. They suggest that clinicians and healthcare decision makers avoid using opinion pieces with conflicted authors and primarily use clinical guidelines that are based on rigorous methodology and have clear policies of how to manage conflicts of interest, such as excluding or minimizing the role of members with conflicts and ensuring a broad skill set in the panel. A more detailed publication appears as a Cochrane Review.

Dec 9, 2020

NEW YORK TIMES: Ben Carson, Chris Christie and Donald J. Trump all have gotten an antibody treatment in such short supply that Colorado is using a lottery system. CBH Director Dr. Matthew Wynia said that giving the powerful access was patently unfair. “That’s one of the reasons why we decided that we would allocate this only through the state and only through this random allocation process,” he said, “so that no one could get a leg up by virtue of their special connections.”

Oct 25, 2020

The Student Professionalism & Ethics Association in Dentistry (SPEA) recognized the University of Colorado School of Dental Medicine with it's 2020 Chapter Award for "Best Fight Against COVID."

Dec 9, 2020

THE ATLANTIC: A system of care that privileges only survival odds reinforces existing injustices. “Equity still matters,” even in a crisis situation, Center Director Matthew Wynia said. “Justice matters. Fairness still matters. You’re not just trying to optimize a number.”

Dec 7, 2020

9NEWS: Center Director Matthew Wynia, MD, MPH discusses the emerging ethical issues around vaccine allocation in Colorado with 9News reporter Tom Green. View interview>>

Dec 4, 2020

Hastings Center Fellows are academic bioethicists, scholars from other disciplines, scientists, journalists, lawyers, novelists, artists or highly accomplished persons from other spheres. Their common distinguishing feature is uncommon insight and impact in areas of critical concern to the Center – how best to understand and manage the inevitable values questions, moral uncertainties and societal effects that arise as a consequence of advances in the life sciences, the need to improve health and health care for people of all ages, and mitigation of human impact on the natural world.

Nov 24, 2020

CU ANSCHUTZ 360 PODCAST: Matthew Wynia, MD, MPH reflects on what he’s learned over the course of the pandemic — moments of optimism and profound disappointment. “Back in February, we had a meeting…on public health preparedness for medical and public health disasters. And we all sort of assumed that there would be a whole of government approach and that the nation would pull together around this, just like we do in wartime. Just like we do after a tsunami, just like we do after a hurricane, we all pull together. And the fact that that hasn't happened is just tragic. It's just tragic.”

Nov 23, 2020

LA TIMES: UCLA is not among the teams that have enhanced their contact tracing efforts through cellphone apps or wearable devices that track player movement. Christine Baugh, PhD, MPH, said electronic monitoring offers its own ethical dilemmas regarding privacy.

Nov 9, 2020

FAT STUDIES: Daniel Goldberg, JD, PhD collaborated with researchers from the UK, Iceland, and the US on this research article. The authors conclude, "As awareness of the inherent injustice and harmful nature of weight stigma reaches critical mass, the perceived political costs and obstacles may amend themselves toward legal reform."

Oct 30, 2020

This report, co-authored by Matthew Wynia, MD, MPH, concludes that political considerations must not be allowed to taint the process of ensuring the safety and efficacy – and subsequent equitable access to and distribution of – vaccines and therapeutics to prevent and mitigate harms from COVID-19. it will only be possible to successfully contain, prevent, and treat communicable diseases – or any public health challenge – if there is public confidence in the integrity and transparency of the scientific process.

Oct 7, 2020

BIOETHICS FOR THE PEOPLE PODCAST: Center Director Matthew Wynia, MD, MPH discussed a range of topics from equity issues to research prioritization and the intertwining of bioethics and humanities. "In the real world of medical practice, of public health practice, of research... the things where we see ethical issues arise; once you get to actual implementation of your careful ethical analysis, it's humanities work."

Oct 21, 2020

INEWSOURCE: Center Director Matthew Wynia said the official count kept by the public health office is important, but it “leads us to underestimate the total impact of certain types of disasters.” In September, Wynia and a team of researchers published a national report that Congress commissioned on how to measure a disaster’s death toll. “You can use that information to target resources to neighborhoods that are being very hard hit or other social groups that may be particularly hard hit. When we can figure out why people die, we can maybe intervene to prevent those deaths.”

Sep 16, 2020

Predicting prognosis is as old as medicine itself. Recent breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning have led to algorithms that promise to answer one of life’s ultimate questions: When will I die? Co-author Matthew DeCamp, MD, PhD concludes that aligning care with patient priorities and avoiding biases should be the explicit aims of such work.

Oct 11, 2020

GREELEY TRIBUNE: COVID-19 is now state’s fourth leading cause of death, but fatalities caused by ODs, heart disease and more also rose. “The pandemic has affected every aspect of our lives, including every aspect of our health care and our health,” said Center Director, Matthew Wynia, MD, MPH.

Oct 10, 2020

​PHILIPPINE/CANADIAN INQUIRER: In June, the National Research Council set up an 18-member COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force charged with prioritizing vaccine projects and securing commercially available vaccines in Canada. The government declared that it was a “deliberate decision … to include individuals who may have a real or perceived … conflict of interest with respect to one or more proposals to be evaluated by the … task force.” The authors, including Lisa Bero, PhD, find that with Canadian lives on the line, trust has already been jeopardized, and trust in decisions about vaccines is going to be crucial. Both transparency and independence are needed, and task force chairs and most members should not have conflicts.

Oct 3, 2020

BOSTON GLOBE: Dr. Matthew Wynia said he worried the public was hearing “contradictory statements” that make “things even more uncertain than they need to be.” He called the information provided about the president’s health “confusing" and said it "suggests that he might be sicker than we’re being told — and that he might have been sick for longer than we’ve been told.”

Oct 8, 2020

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: The pandemic has stimulated public health research across the spectrum of prevention, detection, treatment, and recovery. Lisa Bero, PhD is launching a series of methods articles aimed at improving the relevance and rigor of systematic reviews on public health topics. Using case studies from the Cochrane Collaboration, the articles illustrate innovative methods to involve stakeholders, frame questions, and design evidence syntheses

Oct 5, 2020

THE NATION: The billionaire’s pandemic investments, like much of his work, remain a secret. Lisa Bero, PhD said authors need to provide details of their financial conflicts of interest, even if it means listing dozens of companies—which is not unheard of among authors in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Oct 7, 2020

NEW YORK TIMES: Throughout its 208-year history, the Journal has remained staunchly nonpartisan, until now. "Wow!," said Center Director Matthew Wynia, noting that the editorial which was signed by all 34 editors did not explicitly mention Mr. Biden, but it was clearly “an obvious call to replace the president.”

Oct 7, 2020

As pressure to "reopen America," continues, the pandemic shows signs of worsening. Sports programs at all levels are grappling with difficult decisions about return to sports policies. The Greenwall Foundation awarded their 2020 Presidential Grant to Dr. Christine Baugh, to explore the ethical issues surrounding college football, including health consequences for players, staff and fans. Click for grant details>>