Background: Informed consent is the autonomy of the patient who involves decision-making after being informed of and understanding the physician. Objectives: This study sought to investigate and compare patients¡¦ and physicians¡¦ perceptions of informed consent and the factors that influence their viewpoints on informed consent. Methods: The subjects were citizens without medical background and physicians working in four hospitals. Self-structured questionnaire was used to gather information. The physicians were recruited from two medical centers, a regional hospital and a district hospital in Kaohsiung. The data is analyzed by SPSS 14.0 and used descriptive statistics, item analysis, factor analysis, chi-square test, Fisher's exact probability test, t-test, and ANOVA. Results: The response rates were 97% in citizens (n=891) and 79 % in physicians (n=158). As for the concept of informed consent, 55.7% citizens thought that doctor should respect the opinion from the patient and family during the informed consent process. Furthermore, 91.2% the citizens prefer to know the information about their health condition from the physicians rather than from family (8.8%). Regarding the sequence of informing the physical condition, 29.9% citizens also prefer directly from the physician. As for the decision-making process, 55% respondents thought that patient¡¦s own decision is the most important. 52.5% physicians thought that doctor should respect the opinion from both the patient and family and the bad news should be informed by physicians (88.0%) rather than by family. As for the sequence of knowing the bad news, 46.2% physicians preferred to inform family first and inform patient after discussing with family. In decision-making process, 48.7% physicians thought that physician¡¦s opinion was still more important than opinion of patients and family. Further analysis revealed that patients¡¦ gender and the level of family visited hospital have significant difference on the perception of informed consent (p=0.027; p=0.000); gender, age, educational background and living locations also have significant difference on ¡§who to deliver the bad news.¡¨ (p=0.006; p=0.004; p=0.035; p=0.012); Citizens¡¦ age, educational background and career have significant influence on their opinion of informed consent of recently visiting doctor (p=0.014; p=0.006; p=0.001). The variables in the physicians¡¦ background have no relation with the means of informing and decision-making. The gender and position of the physician have significant effect on the opinion of practice of informed consent (p=0.015 and p=0.001). Conclusions: We concluded that the perceptions of informed consent, there was no difference between physicians and citizens; however the citizen chose the patient first, and the physician chose the family first during the process of informed consent. Physicians have better perceptions of informed consent than the common citizens.

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We investigate the information link between Taiwan option and stock markets by using the multimarket sequential trade model developed by Easley, O¡¦Hara and Srinivas (1998). We test the condition if informed traders trade in the Taiwan option market by investigating the information role of TXO trading volume in Taiwan option market. The result shows that traders¡¦ activity in Taiwan option market is informative and TXO trading volumes have information content for future stock index movements. We show that the ¡§positive news¡¨ and ¡§negative news¡¨ option volumes can predict stock index over 45 minutes; what is different from the empirical result of Easley, O¡¦Hara and Srinivas (1998) is that in Taiwan option market even the standard call, put or all option volumes have predictive power for 25 minutes.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2009. / Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 149-151).

Professionals whose job it is to counsel patients must be cognizant of the role played by communication in the establishment of a trusting working relationship. This is no less true for those within the medical community who must obtain informed consent for surgical interventions than it is for those working within the area of mental health. In order to determine what role communication plays in the obtaining of informed consent within a pediatrics setting, a qualitative study was conducted of 20 surrogates (those individuals giving consent on behalf of legally incompetent children) and of 5 surgeons performing surgical interventions on those children. Two sets of questionnaires were administered in order to elicit information pertaining to how surgeons communicate information to surrogates and to investigate how that information is received and processed by the surrogate. Results showed that while the obtaining of signed informed consent itself may not be a major problem, there are some difficulties in the communication between surgeons and surrogates in this domain. Based on the findings, recommendations for improved communication between surgeons and surrogates are proposed.

Informed consent is a requirement by law. Informed consent is a two part process: giving the patient sufficient information so that an educated choice can be made and obtaining assent in writing (Coy, 1989; Fiesta 1991; Sweeney, 1991;). The purpose of this study is to determine the ability to recall information and the perception of patients about the process of receiving information after signing a consent to participate in a large research trial. Patients signing consents for participation in the Breast Cancer Prevention Trial were asked to complete the surveys. Thirty three patients were asked to complete the questionnaires. Twenty - four (72%) of the respondents returned the completed questionnaires. Confidentiality will be maintained since no names or identifying markers will be used.A modified Patient Recall Survey (Casselith, Zupkis, Sutton - Smith, & March, 1980) and a modified Consent Form Survey (Casselith et al, 1980) were used. The significance of the study is that the results will assist in improving the type of information given to patients and how that information is provided. By increasing patients awareness about the need for and rights of giving informed consent patients will be more knowledgeable health care consumers. Imogene King(1981) provides the theoretical framework for this study using the concept of perceptions as the basis.The first research question illustrated that the majority of the respondents were able to recall at least three risks or complications of participation in the Breast Cancer Prevention Trial. The second research question revealed eighty - seven percent of the patients agreed that informed consents are necessary. However, 27.8 % of the respondents perceived the informed consent as a legal document to protect the physician rights, while only 19.6 % felt that the consent represented a legal document to protect patient rights. Eighty three percent of the respondents understood that a consent did not have to be signed. However, responses to a second question revealed only 21.3 % understood that the informed consent was a chance to refuse or change treatment. Results to research question 3 illustrated that patients felt that informed consents are necessary. Finally, 79.2 % of patients reported that nurses provided the majority of informed consent information. When patients are able to understand and participate in health care decisions, patients will feel more control in determining outcomes. / School of Nursing

Informed consent, based on patient autonomy, is seen as necessary if medical interventions are to be seen as legally and ethically acceptable. While 'informed consent' protocols within antenatal care, including prenatal screening regimes are presumed to be robust, emerging research outside of Australia suggests most women do not adequately understand the medical purpose, limitations or potential ethical implications, such as selective termination, of the medical procedures 'consented' to. While the consent given in these situations may well fulfil the minimal legal criteria for informed consent, the required level of knowledge and understanding necessary to meet the ethical standards informed or understood consent often appears not be met. The presumption that legally informed consent equates to morally informed consent inherent within institutional protocols for screening must therefore be questioned, and the ethical integrity of these increasingly routine interventions demand further scrutiny. The purpose of this research was to explore whether the problems identified in research overseas might also exist locally. Underpinned by a phenomenological philosophical approach to understanding the ethical dimensions of clinical practice, the research sought to engage with a small cohort of mothers and practitioners locally. The study adopted a qualitative narrative methodology, analysing individual in-depth interviews using the Listening Guide (Gilligan et al, 2003). The experiences of mothers and health practitioners interviewed exposed a range of institutional, social, personal and philosophical constraints that mirrored the overseas research findings and also illuminated how informed consent may be unintentionally undermined in the clinical setting. A positive outcome of the study was that it provided a locally informed and contextually sensitive basis from which to strengthen existing organisational informed consent protocols and thus support women's ethical decision making. As the process of becoming 'informed' to consent is largely educational, promoting patient learning in the clinical context is an ethical imperative. However, there seems limited awareness at either the clinical or theoretical level of the critical link between patient education and ethically robust medical intervention. Hence a significant contribution of this research was to explore this underdeveloped but practically important link. As the process of gaining informed consent has far reaching applications across a broad spectrum of medical interventions, the contextual and educational insights offered throughout this research may have significant relevance beyond the immediate context of this research.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Texas, May, 2008. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

Proefschrift Universiteit Maastricht. / Auteursnaam op omslag: Ron Schellings. Met lit. opg. - Met een samenvatting in het Nederlands.

Proefschrift Rijksuniversiteit Limburg, Maastricht. / Met lit. opg. - Met samenvatting in het Nederlands.