IDEALS IN MEDICINE & HEALTHCARE
A Seminar Series
Most healthcare professionals begin their careers with the enthusiasm of a new adventure: they aspire to serve humanity, to alleviate suffering and in some way to accompany and console the dying. Those noble ideals that inspire them at the beginning of their journey are at times challenged and undermined by many practical and pressing realities of systems that fail to place the authentic good of patients and their care-givers at the center of the healthcare mission.
Medical schools, hospitals and professional organizations are struggling to find solutions.
Could a root problem be that we emphasize the "good" of abstract, collective "humanity" at the expense of the authentic good of this concrete human being: this student,
this nurse, this sick person, this family?
Why should we value each and every human being? How does our understanding of what
it means to be human affect how we structure institutions and society?
How can we ensure that future technological advances in healthcare do not aggravate existing tensions? Join us to discuss these pressing challenges!
This seminar is open to all students and faculty of the University of Michigan,
with preference given to healthcare students. Registration is required.
Readings for the seminars may be found here
A light meal will be offered at each seminar.
The Program
September 26, 2024
The Normal, the Pathological and
the PerfecT
Jose A. Bufill, MD
Taubman Health Science Library, Room 6000 from 6 to 7:30 PM
October 30, 2024
Making sense of sickness: Reflections on human vulnerability
Xavier Symons, PhD
Taubman Health Science Library, Room 6000 from 6 to 7:30 PM
November 21, 2024
Human dignity: True or false?
Jose A. Bufill, MD
Taubman Health Science Library, Room 6000 from 6 to 7:30 PM
December 2024
TO BE DETERMINED
January, 2025
Navigating moral complexity in healthcare:
A guide for the perplexed
Kristin Collier, MD
Taubman Health Science Library, Room 6000 from 6 to 7:30 PM
February 24, 2025
Is a “good death” possible?
John Rhee, MD
Taubman Health Science Library, Room 6000 from 6 to 7:30 PM
March 27, 2025
Artificial intelligencE: the promise
& the periL
Jordan Wales, PhD
Taubman Health Science Library, Room 6000 from 6 to 7:30 PM
April 24, 2025
The US healthcare system: Can we do better?
Michael D. Connelly, JD
Kuenzel Room, The Michigan Union
Speaker Bios
Jose A. Bufill, MD, FACP
Medical oncologist with 30 years experience taking care of cancer patients, he has studied, written and spoken widely on bioethics and clinical cancer genetics. He is president of the Bur Oak Foundation.
John Y. Rhee, MD, MPH
Clinician and research scientist in neuro-oncology & palliative care at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Instructor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and founder of the Hippocratic Society a national educational initiative fostering professionalism and humanistic ideals in medicine. The Hippocratic Society offers programs to premedical and medical students and physicians at all stages of their careers, encouraging open dialogue regarding important ethical concerns encountered by clinicians today.
Kristin Collier, MD
Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Michigan, Associate Director of the Internal Medicine Residency Program & Director of the Program on Health, Spirituality and Religion. A popular teacher and lecturer, she was chosen as the keynote speaker for the 2022 White Coat Ceremony by members of the UM Medical School Gold Humanism Honor Society
Xavier Symons, PhD
Director of the Plunkett Centre for Ethics in Sydney, Australia, and recently completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in the Human Flourishing Program of the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard University. Xavier was awarded a 2020 Fulbright Future Postdoctoral Scholarship, and was a scholar in residence at Georgetown University's Kennedy Institute of Ethics from September 2021 to March 2022.
Michael Connelly
CEO Emeritus of Bon Secours Mercy Health based in Cincinnati. During his 23 year tenure as CEO, he acquired extensive experience evaluating healthcare systems throughout Europe & health facilities in the developing world. He is author of “The journey’s end: An investigation of death and dying in modern America“ (Rowan & Littlefield, 2023)
Jordan Wales, PhD
John & Helen Kuczmarski Chair in Theology at Hillsdale College. His scholarly work explores connections between theology and artificial intelligence. His undergraduate degree is from Swarthmore College in Engineering. He was a Marshall Scholar in the UK where he received degrees in Theology from Oxford and in Cognitive Science & Natural Language from the University of Edinburgh. The recipient of a Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation, he completed a PhD in Theology from the University of Notre Dame