Project Description Narrative:
In 1996, Dr. Laura Roberts launched an interdisciplinary research effort to gather evidence to clarify, address, and resolve ethically important issues arising in medical care, human research, and professional conduct in the fields of medicine and science. In 2003, Dr. Roberts transitioned this research group to the Medical College of Wisconsin, where the group began conducting studies pertaining to ethics and policy issues, where they have significantly contributed to new knowledge around issues in psychiatric genetics research, rural health care, stigma, end-of-life care, professionalism education, aging, decisional capacity, surrogate decision-making, informed consent, and related topics.
To advance the work of this group around evidence-based ethics, the Medical College of Wisconsin will create a sustainable infrastructure to support a multidisciplinary research group of empirical ethics investigators, develop junior investigators, and pursue original research in evidence-based ethics in areas related to ethics, public health, and two groups of disorders identified as impacting Wisconsin's health: mental health and alcohol/drug abuse.