Faculty Scholars Program

Jonathan Fuller, MD, PhD

Class of 2029
  • Associate Professor
University of Pittsburgh
About
Scholar Project

Jonathan Fuller, MD, PhD is Associate Professor in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science and the Department of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, where he is also Core Faculty Member in the Institute for Bioethics. Dr. Fuller’s research investigates the ethical and scientific foundations of medical research and practice, with a focus on diagnosis, clinical reasoning and decision-making, epidemiology and clinical research, evidence-based medicine, and innovations for Alzheimer’s disease. He is particularly interested in the ethical and conceptual dimensions of ‘diagnostic excellence’, including in the context of the biomarker-based diagnosis of Alzheimer’s. 

At the University of Toronto, Dr. Fuller completed a PhD in philosophy of medicine and a research fellowship in health professions education in 2016, as well as an MD and postdoctoral fellowship in history and philosophy of science in 2019. He has held visiting appointments at the University of California, Irvine and in the Department of Bioethics at the National Institutes of Health. He is currently Director of the Research Ethics Consultation Service at the University of Pittsburgh, Associate Director of the Centre for Philosophy of Epidemiology, Medicine, and Public Health at the University of Johannesburg and Durham University, co-founder and Deputy Editor of the journal Philosophy of Medicine, and member of the Steering Committee for the International Philosophy of Medicine Roundtable. His recent book, The New Modern Medicine: Disease, Evidence, and Epidemiological Medicine (Oxford University Press, 2025), analyzes the twentieth century transformation of clinical medicine through the integration of epidemiological research and thinking.

For more information, visit https://www.hps.pitt.edu/people/jonathan-fuller

Bioethics of Diagnostic Error and Diagnostic Excellence

Grant Cycle: 2025 - 2026

Diagnostic excellence requires preventing diagnostic errors and avoiding the excess of overdiagnosis, which are a major source of medical harm. This project will aim to develop concepts of diagnostic excellence and diagnostic error, standards for achieving diagnostic excellence, and measures of overdiagnosis, using a novel philosophical theory of the aims of diagnosis. These tools will then be applied to make bioethical recommendations for the biomarker-based diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. By improving how we evaluate and measure diagnostic excellence and error, we can provide more ethical, higher-quality diagnosis for diseases like Alzheimer’s.     

Grant Focus Areas
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