Brandenburg's new ethics consultation: Help for severely affected patients

Brandenburg's new ethics consultation: Help for severely affected patients

The challenges that ethical issues pose in the medical field are undisputed and affect those affected, their relatives and medical staff at different levels. Such questions are often of great importance, particularly in critical situations such as at the end of life. A new offer in Brandenburg is now intended to help manage these conflicts better. The junior professorship for medical ethics at the Faculty of Health Sciences has launched the first remote ethics consultation to provide interdisciplinary support to patients and their relatives. B-TU reports that established ethical counseling services are not available everywhere in Germany, which underlines the need for this initiative.

Ethics consultation focuses on structured discussions led by qualified consultants. These discussions make it possible to clarify moral conflicts that arise during medical treatments. Inquiries can be made to the advisory team, which consists of medical ethicists and experienced doctors, which are then processed either by telephone or via a website. The video conferencing option allows you to respond quickly and flexibly to concerns and, if necessary, call in the expertise of other specialists to develop a comprehensive solution.

Interdisciplinary collaboration

The ethics consulting team has already used experiences from other regions of Germany to develop a well-founded offer in Brandenburg. The country has many decentralized care facilities and more than 50 hospitals that can benefit from this new form of advice. The interdisciplinary approach attempts to take both the self-determination and the health care of the affected individuals into account.

The ethics consultation is part of the Digital Medical Ethics Network, which is run by the Volkswagen Foundation is promoted. This translation project has the long-term goal of strengthening medical ethics in teaching, research and consulting. For this purpose, a curriculum on digital medical ethics is being developed, which is intended to address both medical and computer science training. Further aspects include the establishment of a research hub that promotes basic research and networks scientists as well as testing digital ethics consultation services.

Outlook and goals

The Brandenburg Faculty of Health Sciences was founded in 2018 to develop innovative study programs. The duration of the Digital Medical Ethics project extends from 2022 to 2027. The university cooperates, among others, with the Institute for Ethics and History of Medicine at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, which further promotes the connection between science and practice. This is also evident in other initiatives, such as the E-cARE future project, which deals with the responsible use of robotics in geriatric care.

In summary, it can be said that the new remote ethics consultation in Brandenburg represents an important step in helping patients and their relatives with difficult ethical issues in the medical field. Enabling people to easily receive support will make an important contribution to improving the medical ethical landscape in the region.