• Question: Are ethics involved in your job? How so?

    Asked by y7 on 17 Jul 2023.
    • Photo: Bruno Silvester Lopes

      Bruno Silvester Lopes answered on 17 Jul 2023:

      Not so far but never know..might be in the future

    • Photo: Sophie Shaw

      Sophie Shaw answered on 18 Jul 2023:

      Yes I work on data from patients so they have to give consent on how that data is used. If we want to use any of the data for research and not just for diagnostics, we have to get ethical approval from a board of people who decide what you can and can’t do.

    • Photo: Clare Morrow

      Clare Morrow answered on 18 Jul 2023:

      Yes ethics are involved in pathology. The NHS has an ethical conduct policy, and our regulatory body has ethical standards that we have to apply, such as:
      – ensuring that we only test those tests that have been requested
      – Being open and honest if something goes wrong
      – You must make sure that your conduct justifies the public’s trust and confidence in you and your profession.
      – Being honest about your experience, qualifications and skills.
      – Declaring issues that might create conflicts of interest and make sure that they do not influence your judgement.

    • Photo: Simon Anderson

      Simon Anderson answered on 19 Jul 2023:

      Everyday. Considering what is best for the patient such as is it ethical to undertake this procedure- is it in their best interests, do they understand what is going to happen?

    • Photo: Hannah Scholes

      Hannah Scholes answered on 20 Jul 2023:

      Yes, ethics is involved in biomedical science. The lab produces a lot of data from a lot of patients – all of it is meant for reaching a diagnosis. If someone wants to use that data for a research project e.g. looking at the number of units of blood patients need for a particular type of surgery, that idea has to be approved by a board of people called the ethics committee, and they decide what data you can and can’t use for different purposes.

      Sometime we need ethics approval for some of our tests, especially any genetic testing, because we might find things we weren’t necessarily looking for which may have an effect on the patient.

    • Photo: Kip Heath

      Kip Heath answered on 20 Jul 2023:

      Always! We work with patients and so it’s important to consider the impact of our work on them at all points. When we do research – is it best for the patient? What are the risks to the patient (and this isn’t just physical, e.g. what is it like to talk to parents who have lost a child)?

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