Center for bioethics and medical humanities

The Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities (CBMH)^[1] is located at the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) in Jackson, Mississippi. The center is designed to support the education, research and clinical missions of UMMC by focusing on ethics, professionalism, and the social context of modern health care.

The overarching mission of the Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities is to support advances in professionalism, ethics, and quality throughout UMMC's service, research, and education contributions to Mississippi health, healthcare, and health outcomes. The CBMH helps to identify, develop, implement, and assess programs that will increase ethical fund of knowledge, professionalislm, and student and faculty reflections on health care practices, with an emphasis on eliminating disparities and improving patient-centered care.

The center was established in 2008 by a challenge grant^[2] from the Bower Foundation^[3] and is directed by Dr. Ralph Didlake. The core faculty^[4] of the CBMH consists of full-time UMMC faculty members who have specific training and expertise in the broad spectrum of bioethics issues addressed by the center.

Activities

The CBMH serves as the home of UMMC's Quality Enhancement Plan, "Professionalism Across the Curriculum"^[5] which reaffirms professionalism as a core value in all of its training programs. Ethics, communications and professionalism are essential components of outstanding, compassionate, evidenced-based, behavior-oriented and patient-centered health care. The faculty and staff of the Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities, under the auspices of the UMMC Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), assesses programs and course materials used in classes offered by the six schools at the Jackson campus to determine their effectiveness in generating student-trainee-faculty discussion, reflection and engagement of these crucial skills.

A student Bioethics Fellowship^[6] was established in June 2010 as a collaborative effort between the CBMH and Department of Philosophy and Religion at the University of Mississippi. The fellowship experience fosters scholarship which leads to a greater understanding of the social and cultural context in which health care and biomedical research take place. Participating students develop a foundation for informed participation in health-care education and policy discussions through readings, discussions and clinical observations relevant to: the history and philosophical underpinnings of bioethics as a defined discipline; important theories of modern bioethics; application of bioethical principles to both patient care and biomedical research; and the complex interplay between social cultural, economic, and political forces and health, health care and health policy. Structured as a five-week immersion experience on the UMMC campus, the fellowship accepts a small number of humanities students chosen competitively based on academic record and faculty recommendations.

The center also maintains a Professionalism Resource Catalog^[7] that provides instructional materials in the areas of ethics, professionalism and cultural competency.

Lectures

The Paradox of Affluence: Choices, Challenges and Consequences^[8]

The Evolution of American Bioethics^[9]

References

Other Notable Sources