Too often the focus of ethics reform is on the training students receive in professional school. Under-appreciated and under-studied is the role of pre-professional education in the moral development of future doctors, lawyers, scientists, and other professionals. If we are to understand the moral education of professionals, we cannot ignore the significant lessons future professionals receive in their undergraduate years.

This project explores the many ways undergraduate...
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Four decades ago the profession of bioethics did not exist. Today, bioethics is a part of the landscape of the life sciences: ethics committees are now mandatory in American hospitals; all federally funded research that involves human beings or animals must be reviewed by a board constituted to protect the subjects of research; a plethora of seminars offer training in bioethics for those who need, or wish, to offer ethical advice; bioethics courses are now a regular part of the...
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Even though we know that risk information should be included in decision aids, it is not clear what the best ways are to present this information. The way in which risk information is presented can affect how people make decisions. We are interested in learning how different presentations affect decision making and what presentations are most helpful to patients to make clear, unbiased decisions.

Framing effects. People’s treatment choices depend on whether treatment benefits are framed ...
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Decision aids should include information about the risks and benefits of each possible choice. Often in decision aids these risks and benefits are not provided by themselves but are put into context. This context information could include the risks and benefits that other people face from these choices or the risk that the patient faces from other health conditions. Providing contextual information can influence the meaning people take away from risk information.

The role of...
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Decision aids are used to help patients make decisions about their treatment options when multiple options are available that are reasonable to choose. Decision aids can be presented in many different ways and some of these ways are helpful to patients while others may bias their decisions.What does a useful decision need to include or avoid?

Risk statistics. Many decision aids need to discuss both risks and benefits of treatment. In addition to examining different methods for presenting ...
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People do not make decisions solely based on risk information. Emotional responses can also play a role. We are interested in exploring how different components of decision aids and medical decisions affect people's emotions and may bias there decisions. We are also interested in learning about ways of communicating information that can help to remove this biasing effect.

The influence of patient testimonials. Patient testimonials regarding the desirability or undesirability of a...
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Hepatitis C (HCV) affects 3.2 million Americans, kills 8,000 every year, and is the leading indication for liver transplantation. Despite substantial advances in treatment success rates, recent data indicates that fewer than 15% of patients with HCV have been treated with antiviral therapy. The decision to begin treatment is a difficult one. Antiviral therapy lasts six months to a year, requires the patient to self-administer an injection once a week, and is associated with...
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The last ten years have seen dramatic improvement in antiviral treatment for Hepatitis C (HCV), with 50% of patients able to achieve long-term remission of disease. However, there is reason to believe that the uptake of antiviral treatment has been limited. This study aims to determine the number of patients being treated with antiviral therapy in the U.S., to estimate the public health impact of these treatment patterns, and to identify strategies for increasing HCV patient...
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Liver transplantation has become the preferred treatment for most patients with end-stage liver disease. While short-term outcomes are excellent, less is known about the long-term impact of transplantation on quality of life (QOL). A major barrier to research in this area is the lack of QOL questionnaires targeted to the post-liver transplant population. The aim of this multi-phase study is to develop an instrument for measuring QOL after liver transplantation, and to determine...
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As most are aware, there is a limited supply of organs available for liver transplantation. Moreover, the available organs vary widely in their risk of graft failure. The decision whether to accept a higher risk organ, or wait for a better one, is complex and depends in part on patient preferences. The aim of this study is to elicit patient preferences about risk of graft failure and to explore factors that influence these preferences.

The study consists of a one-time web-based...
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