Program Structure
Master of Science in Bioethics – Collaborative Program with Clarkson University
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS) in collaboration with Clarkson University offers a joint Masters of Science in Bioethics. This program is taught primarily on-line by distance learning which makes it flexible and compatible with most trainees’ scheduling needs. The program involves some face-to-face education, beginning with a nine day summer pro-seminar and including a week long clinical practicum entirely at ISMMS and a week-long capstone seminar. The Bioethics Program provides competency-based and skills-based education in clinical ethics, research ethics and bioethics policy and addresses topics such as refusal of treatment, transplant organ allocation, end-of-life care, physician aid-in-dying, the use of animals in research, and health policy issues related to justice and health improvement issues like obesity and smoking.
The Program is designed to enhance the career and educational opportunities of students from a broad range of background. Students in the program are physicians, lawyers, nurses and academics currently working in healthcare, research oversight, and health policy. Others are post-baccalaureate students who want to expand their understanding of bioethics before entering a professional degree program.
The program allows students to choose a specialization in clinical ethics, research ethics, or health policy. The curricula for these programs are designed to provide both theoretical understanding of key issues and practical skill for working as an ethicist in a clinical setting. The skills training incorporates the use of standardized patients (i.e., actors). A four-course Certificate in Clinical Ethics is also offered.
Elective Courses
Each year, The Bioethics Program at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai offers a number of elective courses through our several graduate degree programs to enhance those programs and to provide opportunities for interested students to expand their understanding of issues in bioethics. These courses which are cross-listed at The Graduate Center, CUNY, are unique in that medical students and graduate students from the humanities and social sciences study together in classes that are team-taught by a philosopher from The Graduate Center and a Mount Sinai clinician.
Listed at ISMMS in the Masters in Public Health Program, this seminar in medical ethics is offered on the MS campus every Spring. It provides students with the opportunity to engage in extended discussions of the serious issues of confidentiality, incompetence, controlled clinical trials, abortion, transplantation, termination of treatment and euthanasia. Several critical topics in the philosophy of science (scientific explanation and prediction, proof, scientific revolutions) and ethical theory (utilitarianism, deontology, rights, justice) are discussed as they relate to specific cases. The seminar is led by Bernard H. Baumrin, PhD, JD and Daniel A. Moros, MD.
Public Health, Medicine, and Social Justice (listed at ISMMS in the Masters in Public Health Program). Justice is a major concern in theoretical ethics and political philosophy and a huge literature is devoted to trying to explain just what it entails. In this course we examine a broad spectrum of issues in medicine, medical research, and public health that raise questions about justice and critique an array of philosophical views on justice in light of critical examples. Throughout the seminar we engage in two activities: (1) using clinical dilemmas and health policies as touchstones for developing a clear understanding of justice, and (2) developing an understanding of how theories of justice apply in different public health and medical contexts. By going from practice to theory and from theory back again to practice , students advance their understanding of the theoretical literature as well as the requirements of justice in public health, medicine and other areas of the social world. This seminar is led by Rosamond Rhodes, PhD and Ian Holzman, MD
Listed at ISMMS in the Masters/PhD Program in Clinical Research and directed by Karin Meyers, MA and Rosamond Rhodes, PhD, this seminar addresses the key issues related the use of human subjects in biomedical research. It involves seminar discussion, extensive reading from the contemporary literature, and a research paper. Topics include: the evolution of clinical trial oversight, informed consent, assent, assessment of risks and benefits, research design, research with minors and other vulnerable subjects, inducements for research subjects, conflict of interest, and confidentiality. The seminar addresses historical examples as well as contemporary dilemmas such as surgical trials, gene therapy trials, and international research. This seminar is required for students in the Masters degree programs in Clinical Research and for fellows in the T32 program. It is an elective for medical and Public Health students.
This elective allows students to pursue independent research. It offers an opportunity for students to explore the literature, conduct independent empirical bioethics research, and write on issues of particular interest.