Evidence map›Paper›PMID 31307458›Full record

ArticleBMC medical ethics2019

Do we understand the intervention? What complex intervention research can teach us for the evaluation of clinical ethics support services (CESS).

Jan Schildmann, Stephan Nadolny, Joschka Haltaufderheide, Marjolein Gysels, Jochen Vollmann, Claudia Bausewein

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in BMC medical ethics, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
25citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

25 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Trial
  3. Case-Based Clinical Ethics Support - A Description and Normative Discussion of Methodological Issues from the Swedish Perspective.HEC forum : an interdisciplinary journal on hospitals' ethical and legal issues · 2026
    Article
  4. Article
  5. Review
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. CURA-An Ethics Support Instrument for Nurses in Palliative Care. Feasibility and First Perceived Outcomes.HEC forum : an interdisciplinary journal on hospitals' ethical and legal issues · 2023
    Article
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Field-Testing the Euro-MCD Instrument: Important Outcomes According to Participants Before and After Moral Case Deliberation.HEC forum : an interdisciplinary journal on hospitals' ethical and legal issues · 2022
    Article
  17. Article
  18. Article
  19. Article
  20. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Jan SchildmannInstitute for History and Ethics of Medicine, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Magdeburger Str. 8, 06112, Halle, Germany. jan.schildmann@medizin.uni-halle.de.
Stephan NadolnyInstitute for History and Ethics of Medicine, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Magdeburger Str. 8, 06112, Halle, Germany.
Joschka HaltaufderheideInstitute for Medical Ethics and History of Medicine, Ruhr-University Bochum, Markstr. 258a, 44779, Bochum, Germany.
Marjolein GyselsCentre for Social Science and Global Health, University of Amsterdam, AHTC, Tower C4, Paasheuvelweg 25, 1105, BP Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Jochen VollmannInstitute for Medical Ethics and History of Medicine, Ruhr-University Bochum, Markstr. 258a, 44779, Bochum, Germany.
Claudia BauseweinDepartment of Palliative Medicine, Munich University Hospital, LMU Munich, Marchioninistr. 15, 81377, Munich, Germany.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundEvaluating clinical ethics support services (CESS) has been hailed as important research task. At the same time, there is considerable debate about how to evaluate CESS appropriately. The criticism, which has been aired, refers to normative as well as empirical aspects of evaluating CESS. MAIN BODY: In this paper, we argue that a first necessary step for progress is to better understand the intervention(s) in CESS. Tools of complex intervention research methodology may provide relevant means in this respect. In a first step, we introduce principles of "complex intervention research" and show how CESS fulfil the criteria of "complex interventions". In a second step, we develop a generic "conceptual framework" for "ethics consultation on request" as standard for many forms of ethics consultation in clinical ethics practice. We apply this conceptual framework to the model of "bioethics mediation" to make explicit the specific structural and procedural elements of this form of ethics consultation on request. In a final step we conduct a comparative analysis of two different types of CESS, which have been subject to evaluation research: "proactive ethics consultation" and "moral case deliberation" and discuss implications for evaluating both types of CESS.

conclusionTo make explicit different premises of implemented CESS interventions by means of conceptual frameworks can inform the search for sound empirical evaluation of CESS. In addition, such work provides a starting point for further reflection about what it means to offer "good" CESS.

Indexed as

Ethics Committees, ClinicalEthics, ClinicalEthics ConsultationEvaluation Studies as TopicHealth Services ResearchHumansMoralsClinical ethics support servicesComplex intervention researchConceptual frameworkEthics consultationEvaluation research

Identifiers

PMID31307458
PMCPMC6633613

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.