The July 17 issue of Nature reports that a patient participating in a Vienna-based cell transfer study for urinary incontinence won a lawsuit against the University Hospital in Innsbruck for not being “told… the procedure was experimental.”
The case was described in an earlier post in my blog (May 27, 2008: Bladder Trouble at the Frontier). There are a number of cell transfer strategies that are being applied in clinics, despite absence of reliable data showing efficacy. This should worry conscientious investigators who are trying to shepherd this promising technology platform to clinical application.
Here’s one example: Bankok based company TheraVitae offers cell transfer to advanced heart patients. In future posts, I will explore concerns about an emerging overseas industry in non-validated therapeutics that 1- involve cutting edge therapies, and 2-involve investors, and scientists, whose countries of origin have not yet licensed such therapies for clinical application. (photo credit: Olivander 2006)
BibTeX
@Manual{stream2008-143,
title = {Stemming Medical Tourism (part 1)},
journal = {STREAM research},
author = {Jonathan Kimmelman},
address = {Montreal, Canada},
date = 2008,
month = jul,
day = 23,
url = {http://www.translationalethics.com/2008/07/23/stemming-medical-tourism-part-1/}
}
MLA
Jonathan Kimmelman. "Stemming Medical Tourism (part 1)" Web blog post. STREAM research. 23 Jul 2008. Web. 09 Jan 2025. <http://www.translationalethics.com/2008/07/23/stemming-medical-tourism-part-1/>
APA
Jonathan Kimmelman. (2008, Jul 23). Stemming Medical Tourism (part 1) [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.translationalethics.com/2008/07/23/stemming-medical-tourism-part-1/
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