Activities & Functions

A broad view for the establishment of the Center for Health Ethics at the University of Missouri is encouraged by an increasing awareness that expertise and guidance in ethics and profession is required to effectively navigate the many challenges of health care. Health ethics encompasses a broad range of ethical concerns within the realms of clinical medicine and nursing, health management and informatics, research, public health, and health policy. These realms coalesce as crucial components that inform modern health care education and practice. The thrust of this initiative is to encourage interdisciplinary initiatives through a centralized effort at developing educational models, research, and clinical expertise in ethics. The goal is to secure the University of Missouri as having a nationally recognized Center of excellence providing leadership, education, training, and research in the field of health ethics and its many components.

The MU Center for Health Ethics fosters ethical discourse and heightens moral sensitivity in health related decision-making across multiple disciplines as well as the broader academic and public community. A well-defined clinical ethics committee and consult service, coordinated by the Center and within Missouri University Health Care, are continuously made available to both the academic and private sectors and actively strive to foster a common dialogue and understanding for ethical decision-making within the health care community at large.

Education and training programs for graduate and medical education are core components of our academic mission. Working with selected faculty of different schools and academic departments within the University of Missouri enhances the opportunity for curriculum development specific to the needs of particular disciplines and encourages dialogue across academic boundaries. Community based education programs and other extramural opportunities at the state and national level compliment the core curriculum.

Research initiatives are being developed in areas such as end of life care, advance care planning, confidentiality, telehealth, patient safety, health care access, palliative care and other concerns related to health care services. Grant funding and utilization of the expertise of those already successful in health services research form our research agenda. Solidifying interdisciplinary activities within the Center for Health Ethics lends force to individual efforts.

The MU Center for Health Ethics, through partnerships with the Center for Health Policy and the Center for Health Care Quality at the University Of Missouri School of Medicine, is developing innovative academic programs and research initiatives that aim to influence academic curricula, training programs, clinical initiatives, and health policy at both the state and national level. The use of unique and innovative means such as telehealth and on line services are also utilized to provide broader access to clinical ethics services and education for the benefit of those we seek to serve.