The clinical consultation service helps address and resolve ethical issues that arise in patient care. Consultations include issues at the end of life such as DNR, withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining therapies, informed consent, refusal of therapy, privacy and confidentiality. Lectures, seminars, and multidisciplinary discussions of bioethical cases are provided. Topics may include ethical issues confronted in the intensive care unit, DNR on the oncology service, and informed consent on various services. The staff review research protocols and consult with investigators on research studies.
Special attention is given to informed consent documents and issues of patient safety.
The Department of Laboratory Medicine provides laboratory and patient-care services support. The department has an active program to develop or improve new and existing diagnostic tests. In addition, basic and applied research is conducted in the areas of thrombosis and hemostasis, flow cytometry, mineral metabolism, intracellular protein characterization, and infectious agent identification. A new molecular diagnostics laboratory currently supports DNA-based characterization of infectious agents, mutation analysis of immune deficiencies, mutation analysis for hypercoagulable states, and molecular evaluation of lipoproteins. A variety of research projects are conducted by DRD faculty.