January 31, 2022

Drug Shortages: Impacting Care

29 minutes

Drug shortages in health care occur for many reasons and have negative impacts. According to the US Food and Drug Administration, “a high percentage of drug shortages have been, and continue to be, sterile injectables, including chemotherapy, anesthesia and other acute drugs”. And, even though drug shortages have declined in recent years, a significant number of shortages are still active and continue to negatively impact patient care. In this episode, we interview national experts who have focused their professional attention on this issue.

Our guests in this episode include:

Dr. Yoram Unguru, pediatric hematologist oncologist, clinical bioethicist, and chair of the ethics committee at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore. Dr. Unguru is also on faculty at the Berman Institute of Bioethics and leads a multidisciplinary, transnational working group examining the ethical and policy implications of chemotherapy shortages in childhood cancer.

Dr. Andrew Shuman, associate professor at the University of Michigan medical school and a practicing head and neck cancer surgeon. Dr. Shuman is also a clinical ethicist who helps to run the clinical ethics service at The University of Michigan and has focused on issues related to access to medications that are scarce either due to cost or supply

This episode was recorded in February 2021.

Additional resources relating to or referenced in this episode:

Drug Shortages: The View Across an Ocean

Drug Shortages – U.S. Food & Drug Administration

Drug Shortages – American Hospital Association

The Drug Shortage Crisis in the United States

Image Credit: Pavel_Chag, via Getty Images, found via promarket.org.

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