AMA ethics journal shutters after 26 years; Retraction Watch, November 13, 2025

Retraction Watch; AMA ethics journal shutters after 26 years 

"The American Medical Association will cease publication of its ethics journal at the end of this year. 

The AMA Journal of Ethics, an open access, peer-reviewed journal was founded in 1999 under the name Virtual Mentor. 

“The loss of the AMA JoE will be most acutely felt by medical students and trainees, since it had a unique production model that included them in the process,” said Matthew Wynia, a physician and bioethicist at the University of Colorado whose work has been featured in the journal and who previously led the AMA Institute for Ethics.

The journal  publishes monthly issues on a specific theme, such as private equity in health care, antimicrobial resistance, palliative surgery and more. The journal also covered ethics in publishing and research, including a 2015 article titled “How Publish or Perish Promotes Inaccuracy in Science—and Journalism” written by Retraction Watch’s cofounder Ivan Oransky...

The journal’s website will remain online with all content freely available, “in keeping with our guiding premise that ethics inquiry is a public good,” Audiey C. Kao, editor-in-chief of the AMA Journal of Ethics and vice president of the AMA’s Ethics Group for more than two decades, wrote in a statement on the journal’s website. “With humility, I am hopeful and confident that this archived journal content will stay evergreen for years to come.”

The AMA did not provide a reason for the decision to shutter the journal."

San Francisco recruits army of social workers, librarians and investigators to track Covid-19; The Guardian, May 1, 2020

Maanvi Singh , The Guardian; San Francisco recruits army of social workers, librarians and investigators to track Covid-19

"San Francisco has assembled an army of librarians, social workers, attorneys, investigators and medical students to find and warn anyone and everyone who may have been exposed to Covid-19...

Immigrant communities are justifiably worried that each time they share information about their status and location, “it will come back to haunt them,” Hayes-Bautista said. “It makes sense that people are scared.”...

San Francisco has similarly publicized that the contact tracing is “voluntary, confidential, and culturally and linguistically appropriate. Immigration status will have no bearing on these conversations.”"

Medical students wanted: Only the ethical need apply; The Boston Globe, February 28, 2019

Inderveer Mahal, The Boston Globe; Medical students wanted: Only the ethical need apply

"Acceptance to medical school is notoriously difficult. You need to have an exceptional GPA and high Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) scores just to get an interview. Now, it’s getting even harder. Admissions officers have added a new kind of test to their screening arsenal, one that could change the face of medicine.

Since 2015, more than two dozen medical schools across the United States have embraced a test of interpersonal skills known as the CASPer (Computer Based Assessment for Sampling Personal Characteristics) test. The exam determines students’ levels of compassion and ethics — two qualities that many believe are critical to a physician’s success.

“As a society,” says Dore, “we know that strong academic skills aren’t the only trait we value in our doctors. We want them to be excellent communicators, have a strong moral sense, and be able to be empathetic across a variety of situations.”"