Ethics committees

AMNews, the weekly newsletter of the American Medical Association, this week considers the role of the hospital ethics committee, including potential limitations and barriers to ethics consultation by physicians.

The article mentions the VA initiative to transform the ethics committee model, coordinated by the VA's National Center for Ethics in Health Care. The IntegratedEthics initiative began rolling out to all VA medical centers in May 2007 and their web site includes a wealth of training information and other tools, including Ethics Consultation: Responding to Ethics Questions in Health Care, a primer for ethics consultants.