Research
BIOETHICS and
PSYCHIATRY
Bioethics has an important role in
medical academia in Canada and world-wide. Fundamentally, bioethics addresses
moral issues that arise in clinical care and clinical-academic settings.
Psychiatry is loaded with many such moral issues, such as those related
to coercion and lack of patient autonomy, hence the need for a focus on
bioethics in psychiatry.
Our department has incorporated and
is promoting bioethics in various ways, in collaboration with faculty and
trainees. These academic initiatives include:
-
A departmental bi-annual ethics CME half-day,
where international as well as local bioethics scholars present, in addition
to our residents. International scholars that have presented to date include
Prof. George Agich from Bowling Green State University in the US and Prof.
Sidney Bloch from Melbourne University in Australia.
-
An annual summer bioethics course for
PGY1 residents.
-
Quarterly clinical ethics seminars,
where junior and senior residents present and discuss ethically challenging
cases.
-
Quarterly integrated bioethics rounds
across the academic mental health care programs at RMHC and LHSC.
-
Bioethics research, e.g., publications
in bioethics journals such as Health Care Analysis (e.g., Rudnick 2007);
Rudnick A et al. Dialogue in clinical
neuroethics: an exploratory study of the impact of cognitive and other
mental impairments on patient participation in ethics consultations.
Canadian Institutes of Health Research 2008-2010.
-
A bioethics fellowship, with a research
focus on ethics and philosophy and opportunities to attend various bioethics
forums; this fellowship, supervised by Dr. Rudnick (contact email
below), is offered to interested psychiatrists and other physicians from
Canada and elsewhere, and lasts 1-3 years per fellow.
Psychiatry is now represented in all
relevant bioethics committees and groups in London - the UWO Health Sciences
Research Ethics Board, the LHSC organizational ethics committee, the SJHC
health care ethics committee, the RMHC ethics committee, and the UWO Bioethics
Research Group.
The bioethics director in the
department is Dr. Abraham Rudnick, Associate Professor in the departments
of Psychiatry and of Philosophy at UWO. Email for correspondence: arudnic2@uwo.ca
Below find links to bioethics resources:
