Hastings Center Inc

Programs: See schedule oresearch:the hastings center's researchers investigated a diverse range of ethical, legal, and policy questions related to science, medicine, and health. Project topics included advances in genetics such as gene editing and genetic testing; aging and care at the end of life; medical decision-making including at the end of life; the governance of learning health care systems; the development of autonomous machines; the role of values in assessing the impact of technologies; and more. We produced analysis and formulated advice on these questions, which we disseminated to specialist and non-specialist audiences through the publication of an online casebook, 3 reports, 74 articles, book chapters, and commentaries. In addition, we offered 103 talks, lectures, and interviews across the united states, mexico, canada, england, serbia, new zealand, and italy, as well as dozens of interviews with journalists at national and international media outlets. Our researchers also served on numerous advisory committees, including for the white house's office of science, technology and policy, world economic forum, national academies of science, city of new york, american heart and american stroke associations, march of dimes, and the editorial boards of dozens of academic journals. This research was supported by grants, contracts, and donations from 15 public and private funders, including the national institutes of health, national science foundation, john templeton foundation, dongahue foundation, lien foundation, and patient-centered outcomes research institute (pcori).

see schedule oin 2017, the hastings center report, a bioethics journal published by the center, published six issues featuring a mixture of articles, essays, and columns, offering scholarly analyses and expert commentary on issues ranging from health insurance policy to public health, clinical trial design, physician-assisted death, the precision medicine initiative, allocation of the benefits of medical research, and physician-patient contracts to limit opioid drug abuse. The report also published three supplements, on reproductive autonomy (in the november-december issue), the use of genetic technologies for environmental conservation (july-august), and the design and use of national bioethics commissions (may-june). The report was distributed in print and online versions to 10700 libraries and other institutions (5,000 subscribing directly and the remainder gaining access through distribution services), and to roughly 500 individuals, through john t. Wiley & sons. Roughly 300,000 items were downloaded. Irb: ethics & human research, a journal devoted to issues in the ethics and regulation of research on human subjects, offered six issues in 2016 on topics in medical and biological research, including the design of informed consent forms, ebola vaccine trials, and quality improvement initiatives. Roughly 2,300 institutions and libraries subscribed to irb. Bioethics forum, the hastings center's blog, features scores of commentaries on bioethics topics in the news.

see schedule othe public affairs and communications department is responsible for informing and engaging diverse audiences in the research, publications, public events, and other activities of the hastings center. In 2017, the department launched a weekly newsletter, distributed to nearly 14,000 people. Another communications innovation was the introduction of an automated email notification of new essays posted on bioethics forum, the blog of the hastings center report. Since the automated e-blast began, subscribers to the blog have grown from about 2,500 people to nearly 3,000. The blog had 7,771 visitors in 2017. In addition, the communications department took the lead in organizing two preconference workshops at major meetings of journalists: the association of health care journalists annual meeting in april and the world conference of science journalists in october. The workshops, which reached hundreds of journalists, were part of the center's project on gene editing supported by the john templeton foundation. The hastings center had 800 mentions in the media in 2017, with quotes and other mentions in top-tier media such as the new york times, npr, the atlantic, the washington post, and new york magazine. Hastings added 1,000 twitter followers in 2017, to 9,100.