Foundation Announces Greenwall Faculty Scholars Class of 2029

The Foundation’s flagship Greenwall Faculty Scholars Program in Bioethics helps build the next generation of leaders in bioethics by supporting early-career faculty members to carry out innovative bioethics research, and by building an intellectually rich and active community. Since 2002, the Foundation has supported over 75 Scholars from more than 40 different institutions.

Jonathan Fuller, MD, PhD is Associate Professor in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh. His project is “Bioethics of Diagnostic Error and Diagnostic Excellence.”

Abstract: 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.

Bryanna Moore, PhD is Assistant Professor and Clinical Ethicist in the Department of Health Humanities and Bioethics at the University of Rochester. Her project is “Reasons and the Ethics of Pediatric Decision-Making.”

Abstract: Most pediatricians and ethicists believe medical and legal systems should evaluate parental choices based on their effect on the child—not the reasons offered by parents. Controversy over the role of parents’ reasons in pediatrics reflects a broader lack of critical reflection on the roles that reasons play in medical decision-making. Guided by two central research questions: “when and how do parents’ reasons impact decision-making?” and “when and how should parents’ reasons influence decision-making?”, this project seeks to develop reasons-sensitive normative guidance to help clinicians engage with parents’ reasons in ways that promote fairness, foster trust, and reduce distress and uncertainty.

Carrie Thiessen, MD, PhD is Assistant Professor in the Division of Transplantation at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. Her project is “Ethical Approaches to Reforming Deceased Donor Organ Allocation in the United States.”

Abstract: Priority for receipt of deceased donor organ transplants in the United States is determined by national regulations that undergo extensive professional and public review to establish an acceptable balance of competing ethical considerations. Increasingly, this system is bypassed by a practice known as allocation out-of-sequence (AOOS). Dr. Thiessen will seek to integrate empirical, normative, and policy analyses to answer three questions about AOOS: (1) Why are so many organs placed for transplant via AOOS? (2) Are stakeholders that engage in AOOS behaving unethically? (3) How can we decrease the number of organs undergoing AOOS? This research aims to inform ongoing reforms to national transplant allocation policy.