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Glenn McGee

Publications and source records attributed to Glenn McGee.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Factors influencing length of stay in the intensive care unit.

BACKGROUND: Long stays in the intensive care unit are associated with high costs and burdens on patients and patients' families and in turn affect society at large. Although factors that affect length of stay and outcomes of care in the intensive care unit have been studied extensively, the conclusions reached have not been reviewed to determine whether they reveal an organizational pattern that might be of practical use in reducing length of stay in the unit. OBJECTIVE: To identify and categorize the factors associated with prolonged stays in the intensive care unit and to describe briefly the nonmedical interventions to date designed to reduce length of stay. METHODS: Articles published between January 1990 and March 2005 in English-language journals indexed by MEDLINE were searched for studies on outcomes and costs of care in the intensive care unit and on care at the end of life. RESULTS: The emerging consensus is that length of stay in the intensive care unit is exacerbated by several increasingly discernible medical, social, psychological, and institutional factors. At the same time, several nonmedical, experimental interventions have been designed to reduce length of stay. CONCLUSIONS: Interventions involving palliative care, ethics consultations, and other methods to increase communication between healthcare personnel, patients, and patients' families may be helpful in decreasing length of stay in the intensive care unit. Further studies are needed to provide a strategy for targeting specific risk factors indicated by the literature review.

Communication↗
PubMed2005

Keynote address: Toward a pragmatic model for community consultation in emergency research.

Under the Final Rule enacted in 1996 by the United States Food and Drug Administration and Office of Health and Human Services, community consultation and public notification are required when emergency research is to be conducted in the absence of prior informed consent by subjects. There is a dearth of published recommendations concerning the degree to which communities must be aware of the existence and parameters of a study for which informed consent might not be obtained prior to enrollment. It is argued that effective community consultation requires empirical measurement of the dynamics of community, and that ordinary notions of community may not capture the populations at greatest risk or those who might for other reasons figure most prominently in community consultation. A pragmatic approach to community consultation would establish benchmarks for such measures, and it is argued that such an approach is possible given the correct empirical measures.

Community-Institutional Relations↗
PubMed2005

Medical study: aspiring parents, genotypes and phenotypes: the unexamined myth of the perfect baby.

Although many have argued that assisted reproductive technologies ("ARTs") attract those with a desire to genetically engineer their offspring, this claim has yet to be verified. To address this question, we surveyed three groups: the general public, people enrolling in an in vitro fertilization ("IVF") program, and pregnant couples. We asked subject which traits they would select in their children if it were possible to use a magic wand to do so and to value genetic relatedness. In our sample, the potential parents who were using ARTs were less likely to express a desire to select traits in their offspring than were the general public, and just as likely as the pregnant couples, Those using ARTs , however, place greater importance on having genetically related children than the others. Thus, the widely held view that reproductive technology is utilized by those most likely to favor genetic engineering is falsified by out findings.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed2003

Thirty years of bioethics.

Glenn McGee, Editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Bioethics offers a brief overview of the issues that have defined America's 'thirty years of bioethic,' and contends that genetics is the issue that now awakens bioethicists' concern.

Bioethical Issues↗
PubMed1999

The ethics and politics of small sacrifices in stem cell research.

Pluripotent human stem cell research may offer new treatments for hundreds of diseases, but opponents of this research argue that such therapy comes attached to a Faustian bargain: cures at the cost of the destruction of many frozen embryos. The National Bioethics Advisory Commission (NBAC), government officials, and many scholars of bioethics, including, in these pages, John Robertson, have not offered an adequate response to ethical objections to stem cell research. Instead of examining the ethical issues involved in sacrificing human embryos for the goal of curing fatal and disabling diseases, they seek to either dismiss the moral concerns of those with objections or to find an "accomodation" with those opposed to stem cell research. An ethical argument can be made that it is justifiable to modify or destroy certain human embryos in the pursuit of cures for dread and lethal diseases. Until this argument is made, the case for stem cell research will rest on political foundations rather than on the ethical foundations that the funding of stem cell research requires.

Aborted Fetus↗