CWRU Department of Bioethics

12/03/2025

🔥 When medical ethics meets patient safety in unexpected places...

What responsibilities do healthcare providers have when they identify previously undocumented safety risks affecting vulnerable communities?

Tomorrow at noon, The MetroHealth System (Cleveland, OH)'s Center for Biomedical Ethics presents a Virtual Bioethics@Noon Grand Rounds discussion that bridges burn surgery, consumer safety, and health equity.

Casey Kohler, MD (Trauma & Burn Surgeon, Assistant Professor of Surgery) and Edgar "Eddie" Villalobos, MD (General Surgery PGY-3) will examine a disturbing pattern emerging in their ABA-verified burn unit: preventable scalp burns from flammable alternative hair products and adhesives—injuries that have received virtually no attention in published medical literature.

"This Hair Is on Fire! (but it shouldn't be)" tackles essential questions:

-How do we address safety gaps when entire product categories remain unregulated?

-What's our obligation when harm disproportionately affects underrepresented communities?

-Where does provider education end and advocacy for regulatory standards begin?

Virtual Bioethics@Noon Grand Rounds

📅 Thursday, December 4 | 🕛 12:00-1:00 PM EST

🔗 Zoom: https://cwru.zoom.us/j/93376525928?pwd=a8lB2sCsBnMTk26iwyamY31YYaeUbB.1 Meeting ID: 933 7652 5928 | Passcode: 082237

Join us!

11/20/2025

Tonight!

10/06/2025

CWRU undergrads! Thinking about combining your undergraduate and graduate education? 🤔

We’re hosting a Combined Bachelor’s/Master’s Open House for our MA in Bioethics and Medical Humanities program this Wednesday, October 8 from 4-5 pm in the Tink Senior Classroom.

Whether you’re curious about exploring the ethical dimensions of healthcare, interested in research that bridges theory and practice, or wondering how a master’s degree could enhance your path to medicine, public health, law, or beyond, we’d love to see you there! 🎓

Come meet our faculty, current students in the program, and learn how you can make the most of your time at CWRU by earning both degrees. Questions? Bring them!

See you Wednesday! ✨

09/29/2025

"Mixed Signals: The Ethics of Caring for Patients Who 'Refuse' in the Moment"

When patients say "yes" to treatment but "no" in the moment, how do we honor both their autonomy AND their humanity? 🤔💭

Join us this Thursday, October 2, 2025 | 12pm - 1pm EST

We're thrilled to welcome back Dr. Anna D. Goff, PhD, HEC-C (PhD '24), now a Clinical Ethics Fellow at Weill Cornell Medicine, who will explore the gray areas where consent meets capacity, trauma intersects with treatment, and healthcare providers must navigate the space between what patients say they want and what they communicate in real time.

When a critically ill patient wants to survive and consents to treatment—but says "no" when the moment arrives—are we honoring autonomy or overlooking it? Dr. Goff will examine:

✨ The limitations of our current frameworks for decisional capacity

✨ The role of trauma response, anxiety, and ambivalence in treatment acceptance

✨ Innovative, patient-centered approaches to care in these complex situations

✨ The moral distress providers experience when facing conflicting signals

This session is essential for clinicians, ethicists, researchers, and anyone who grapples with the messy, human reality of informed consent in acute care settings. Bioethics@Noon Grand Rounds is a monthly collaboration between the CWRU Department of Bioethics and The MetroHealth System (Cleveland, OH)'s Center for Biomedical Ethics that brings together clinicians, ethicists, and scholars to explore pressing ethical challenges in healthcare. 🏥

For the Zoom link, please contact Dr Legbel Ekpata at lxe101@case.edu

See you Thursday! 💙

03/13/2025

We're incredibly proud of our MA student Jacey Edwards and PhD student Xavier Williams, who presented posters at the Cancer Disparities Symposium last week! 👏

Their posters showcased research they've been working on with Assistant Professor Dr. Lynette Hammond Gerido.

Jacey, a CWRU psychology grad who is now pursuing our MA in Bioethics & Medical Humanities, presented "Narratives of Mistrust within Black Families affected by Cancer." The study analyzed how Black cancer patients and their families discuss healthcare mistrust, revealing patterns of concerns about quality of care, experiences of discrimination, and intergenerational transmission of mistrust.

Xavier, who is in his first year in our PhD program, worked with Dr. Gerido on "Who receives their genetic testing results? Exploring patient portal use and implications of technological innovation." They analyzed the Health Information National Trends Survey, looking at how digital divides affect access to genetic testing results, particularly among vulnerable populations.

These faculty-student research collaborations represent the best of academic partnership. We look forward to following Jacey and Xavier's growth as bioethics scholars and seeing how their important work with Dr. Gerido advances the field's scholarship and creates meaningful impact.

03/05/2025

Can poetry enhance clinical practice? The William Carlos Williams Poetry Contest makes us think so! 📚🩺

Mark your calendars for the prestigious William Carlos Williams Poetry Contest Awards Ceremony on Saturday, March 15th from 4:00-5:30 PM at the CWRU Health Education Campus! 🏆✨

As the oldest poetry contest for medical students in the country, this celebration will showcase the winning medical student and physician poets reading their original works. The featured speaker will be Dr. Diana Farid, physician and award-winning author, poet, and filmmaker from Stanford University.

Attend in-person or via Zoom - register here: https://buff.ly/2NFyXiP

Before the ceremony, Dr. Farid will lead a Poetry Writing Workshop designed specifically for medical students and our bioethics students! 🖋️

This event is co-sponsored by the CWRU SOM Humanities Pathway (directed by our own Erin Gentry Lamb, Carl F. Asseff MD, MBA, JD, Designated Professor in Medical Humanities), NEOMED, the CCLCM Program in Medical Humanities, and the Hiram College Center for Literature and Medicine.

Our department proudly supports the humanities in healthcare education because we believe the arts are essential to developing empathetic and thoughtful healthcare professionals. Will we see you there? 🤔

03/05/2025

How can clinical trials serve EVERYONE in our communities?

The 2025 Cancer Disparities Symposium: "Clinical Trials: Successes and Future Directions" is asking just that. 🔬💫 And among the voices will be two of our faculty:

Lynette Hammond Gerido, PhD, MPH, MBA, Assistant Professor, Department of Bioethics and Scientific Director of the Bioethics Center for Community Health And Genomic Equity (CHANGE), will present "Narratives of Mistrust within Black Families Affected by Cancer" on Thursday afternoon.

Aaron Goldenberg, PhD, Professor and Vice Chair, Department of Bioethics, Director of Research, Department of Bioethics, and Director of the Bioethics Center for Community Health And Genomic Equity (CHANGE), will present "Transforming Research to Increase Better Cancer Care for Everyone" on Friday morning. 🌟

The symposium, hosted by the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center's Office of Community Outreach and Engagement, will cover community-healthcare relationships, patient approach strategies, clinical trial conversations, decentralization efforts, and addressing participation barriers to improve trial engagement.

Learn more and register here: https://buff.ly/D4shFcH

📅 When: Thursday, March 6, 2025, 8:15 a.m.-5:30 p.m. & Friday, March 7, 2025, 8:15 a.m.-12 p.m.
📍 Where: Case Western Reserve University Tinkham Veale University Center

Our department and the Bioethics Center for Community Health And Genomic Equity (CHANGE) proudly support the Case CCC through collaborations that address health disparities and promote equitable care—work that aligns perfectly with our mission to serve health professionals, policy makers, and the public while fostering meaningful research partnerships. 🤝

02/27/2025

Have you incorporated diverse healing narratives in your teaching? 🤔📚

Assistant Professor Lindsey Grubbs and Jess Libow have! They recently published a paper in the Journal of Medical Humanities recommending Kali Fajardo‑Anstine's "Remedies" as a way to spark conversations about the relationship between traditional healing and biomedicine in the health humanities classroom.✨

In "Bringing Traditional Medicine into the Health Humanities Classroom", they discuss how they use this powerful short story (available for free online!) to offer students a nuanced perspective on healing that extends beyond conventional biomedical frameworks. 🌿💊

Plus, it's just a really good read!

Work like this exemplifies our department's commitment to expanding perspectives in bioethics and medical humanities, creating space for diverse healthcare traditions, and enriching our educational approaches! 🎉🌟

Citation: Libow, J., & Grubbs, L. (2024). Bringing Traditional Medicine into the Health Humanities Classroom with Kali Fajardo‑Anstine's "Remedies". Journal of Medical Humanities, 45, 443–448.

📝 Read their article: https://buff.ly/3F0en4D
📖 Read "Remedies" here: https://buff.ly/4kjMuos
👩‍🏫 Learn more about Dr. Grubbs: https://buff.ly/3EUfDWN

In this essay, we recommend Kali Fajardo-Anstine’s short story “Remedies” (2019) for inclusion on health humanities syllabi based on our experiences teaching it at two undergraduate institutions. The story is drawn from Sabrina & Corina, Fajardo-Anstine’s award-winning book of short stories ...

02/26/2025

What does it take to become a clinical ethicist? 🤔

Our PhD candidate Sean Eli McCormick is finding out through an immersive year-long internship at the UH Department of Clinical Ethics! 🎓💼

The UH Clinical Ethics Internship, which will continue until July of 2025, gives him the opportunity to observe and participate in the activities of UH's Clinical Ethics Program (CEP). Under the mentorship of the internship director, he has been shadowing a clinical ethics consultant, reviewing medical charts, joining crucial family and patient meetings, and attending rounds and committee and institutional meetings (such as the IRB, and committees on ethics, Conflicts of Interest, and Transplant Selection).

As a clinical ethics intern, he is receiving hands-on experience helping healthcare teams navigate complex ethical dilemmas, and learning skills like ethical analysis, mediation, and healthcare communication—all while continuing his doctoral studies! 📊🧠

We are immensely proud of the rigorous work our doctoral students like Eli undertake, demonstrating their commitment to advancing both theory and practice in this challenging field.

This internship reflects our department's long collaborative relationship with University Hospitals, which continues to build through the new UH/CWRU Center for Clinical Ethics. 🤝

👉 Want to learn more about him? Check out his page on our website, (or better yet, ask him!) https://buff.ly/3DanCi3

👉 Learn about the UH/CWRU Center for Clinical Ethics: https://buff.ly/49FFGM2

Biography Sean Eli McCormick is a PhD candidate in the Department of Bioethics at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. He has served as a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Akron since Fall 2022, and as an Instructor in the Department of Philosophy an...

02/24/2025

Can't keep up with social posts? Our newsletter delivers CWRU Bioethics department updates every quarter(ish) without the daily scroll, straight to your email. Faculty news, student highlights, and upcoming events—all in one place.

Latest issue: https://buff.ly/4biS4TY
Previous issues: https://buff.ly/4hT1A2s
Subscribe here: https://buff.ly/3XeXObx

—because sometimes your inbox is more reliable than your feed! 😉

The latest issue of our departmental newsletter!

02/23/2025

Our alumni continue to set high standards in clinical ethics practice!

Dr. Gabriel Francisco Nibungco (MA '22), currently at MetroHealth, and Abagail Cohen (MA '23), currently at the VA, have earned their Healthcare Ethics Consultant-Certified (HEC-C) credentials last fall.

The HEC-C credential, which established a national standard for clinical ethics consultation, requires both passing a comprehensive exam AND completing at least 400 hours of healthcare experience.

Dr. Nibungco and Ms. Cohen are now among just 805 professionals nationwide with this credential!

We love to see our graduates thriving and advancing the field of bioethics. Congratulations to both!

02/21/2025

🌏 What can we learn from different cultural approaches to youth mental health?

Dr. Eileen Anderson, Anne Templeton Zimmerman MD Professor in Bioethics, joined leading social science researchers and clinicians to address this crucial question at the University of Chicago's Hong Kong campus for an intensive workshop on 'Cultures of Youth Mental Health.'

Her presentation, 'Emotional Simulacra and Youth Mental Health Revisited: The Good, Bad and Ugly,' drew on her research with young people's experience of mental health in several countries. The workshop mapped historical trajectories, socio-political concerns, and technological changes across North America, the UK, and various regions of Asia.

We look forward to the forthcoming conference proceedings exploring these diverse perspectives on youth mental health. Proud to see our faculty contributing to this important global dialogue!

Read more here: https://buff.ly/4130YjB