The Center for Bioethics and Social Sciences in Medicine (CBSSM) is a joint program sponsored by the University of Michigan Medical School and the Ann Arbor VA, and is co-directed by Drs. Angela Fagerlin and Scott Kim. It is a multidisciplinary unit that integrates bioethics with key social science disciplines, bringing together in one entity research, education, policy work, and service. CBSSM attracts scholars from across departmental and disciplinary boundaries and in so doing, provides fertile ground for new synergies.  The primary research interests of CBSSM faculty focus on five overarching themes: (1) clinical and research ethics, (2) health communication and decision making, (3) medicine and society, (4) health, justice and community, and (5) genomics, health and society.   

To contact CBSSM, call (734) 615-8377 or email nbirk@umich.edu.

Working Groups at CBSSM

Coming up at CBSSM in 2011-12

May 17, 2012

David Wendler, PhD, of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will be the featured speaker at the May 17 CBSSM seminar, 3:30-4:45, NIB 7C09.  Dr. Wendler's talk is entitled, "The moral duty to buy health insurance."  Dr. Wendler is head of the Unit on Vulnerable Populations in the Department of Bioethics at the NIH Clinical Center.  He is a philosopher trained in the philosophy of science and epistemology.  Dr. Wendler has served as a consultant to numerous organizations, including the Council of International Organizations of Medical Sciences, the World Medical Association, the American College of Cardiology, and the National Institute on Aging.  His current work focuses on the ethics of research with individuals who are unable to give informed consent.

Check out our events page for the CBSSM 2011-12 seminar series at www.cbssm.org/events.