Medical Ethics and Law

Department: MD-BIOETHICS LAW / MEDICINE

Lauren B Solberg JD, MTS

Associate Professor & Program Director

Introduction

The Discovery Pathway in Medical Ethics and Law is a formal track in the University of Florida College of Medicine curriculum designed to provide students with a more in-depth look at legal and ethical issues in patient care and/or research.  Through practical, active learning opportunities such as attendance at ethics committee and IRB meetings, academic conferences, participation in ethics consultation for real (not simulated) patients, among other offerings, students will learn not only how to analyze ethical issues in research and patient care but also how to develop scholarship in law and bioethics. 

Track objectives

Students will

1. Compare theories and methodology fundamental to conducting research in bioethics and law.
2. Develop expertise in one or more fundamental aspects of medical ethics and law (for example issues in reproductive medicine, end of life care, or care of vulnerable populations).
3. Develop skills to research bioethics and legal issues in medicine.
4. Apply previously acquired knowledge on identifying, analyzing, and resolving ethical issues in patient care and research.
5. Describe the ethics consultation process, including how to request an ethics consultation, appropriate formats for ethics consultation, and how to actively participate in ethics consultation.
6. Describe the IRB review process, including the regulations that govern the conduct of human subjects research and the presentation of a protocol to the IRB.

Rationale for development of a track

• Multiple student requests for more in-depth engagement in bioethics topics and processes
• Career opportunities , in research and medical practice, such as participation in specialty society ethics policy boards
• Competitor medical schools with similar tracks or comparable programs
• Advanced  preparation for clinical and/or research ethical issues in residency

Track Requirements

• Identify one of the Program in Bioethics, Law & Medical Professionalism core faculty as a “track mentor” (note: the “track mentor” need not be the faculty member with whom students conduct their track research project)
  • The identified BLMP track mentor will meet with their student(s) at least annually to monitor track progress, support student learning, and ensure student is progressing toward track completion
• Satisfactory completion of Research and Discovery course in first year
• Satisfactory completion of MSRP or other research project on relevant topic approved by BLMP track mentor
  • To satisfy this requirement, research should generate a peer-reviewed publication, a publication that undergoes a rigorous review equivalent to peer review (e.g. law review article), a poster, or other appropriate product
• Satisfactory completion of Advanced Issues in Medical Ethics and Law as MS3 or MS4, or another elective with BLMP track mentor permission
• Completion of any 6 activities (see activity list below)
  • Students may choose any combination of activities from the list below. Each conference, meeting, seminar, etc. counts as 1 activity, e.g. attendance at 2 ethics committee meetings counts as 2 activities. Students need not complete options 1-6 in order to meet track requirements.

Activity List

1. Attend at or other relevant conference (e.g. on bioethics, health law, etc). For more information about FBN conference please visit their website.
   a. We note that students will receive complimentary registration for any FBN conference they choose to attend. Additionally, the Department of Community Health and Family Medicine supports the contributions of this track to the medical education curriculum. Pending the availability of funds, students in the track may receive funds from the department toward the cost of attendance at a conference that satisfies the track’s contact hour requirement.
2. Attend IRB or IACUC meeting
3. Attend IRB Brown Bag session
4. Attend ethics committee meeting
5. Participate in ethics consultation
6. Read and discuss one of the following books with BLMP track mentor:
   a. Bioethics: A Clinical Guide for Medical Students, by Dan C. English
   b. Clinical Ethics: A Practical Approach to Ethical Decisions in Clinical Medicine, by Albert R. Jonsen, Mark Siegler, et al.
   c. Contemporary Issues in Bioethics, by Tom L. Beauchamp, LeRoy Walters, Jeffrey P. Kahn, Anna C. Mastroianni
   d. Ethical and Regulatory Aspects of Clinical Research: Readings and Commentary, by Ezekiel J. Emanuel, Robert A. Crouch, et al.
   e. Ethical Issues in Clinical Research: A Practical Guide, by Bernard Lo
   f. Florida Bioethics Network Guidelines for Ethics Committees
   g. Fletcher’s Introduction to Clinical Ethics, by John C. Fletcher, Paul A. Lombardo, Edward M. Spencer
   h. Principles of Biomedical Ethics, by Tom L. Beauchamp and James F. Childress
   i. Resolving Ethical Dilemmas: A Guide for Clinicians, by Bernard Lo
   j. The Basics of Bioethics, by Robert M. Veatch
   k. The Ethics and Regulation of Research with Human Subjects, by Jesse A. Goldner, Nancy N. Dubler, Carl H. Coleman, and Jerry A. Menikoff
   l. The Oxford Textbook of Clinical Research Ethics, by Ezekiel J. Emanuel, Christine C. Grady, et al.
   m. Other, with approval of BLMP track mentor
7. Completion of 1 online bioethics training course, such as:
   a. CITI Conducting Human Subjects Research course
   b. CITI Responsible Conduct of Research course;
   c. CITI Ethics Committee Training course; or
   d. Other, with approval of BLMP track mentor
8. Participate in other activities as approved by student’s track faculty mentor
   a. Examples of other activities may include department or college grand rounds, journal clubs, COM Office of Faculty Affairs and Professional Development seminars or workshops, meetings of relevant committees or workgroups, etc.

About Track Faculty

Lauren Solberg, JD, MTS

Professor Solberg is the track leader for the Medical Ethics and Law track in the Discovery Pathways Program and the Director of the UF COM Program in Bioethics, Law and Medical Professionalism. She is an Associate Professor in the College of Medicine, Department of Community Health and Family Medicine. Her research interests are broad, and span issues including (but not limited to) ethical issues in research – in particular the use of social media to conduct research, as well as ethical and legal issues in women’s health and pediatrics, end of life care, neuroethics, and AI. Her research has also included issues in criminal law and health of incarcerated patients, as well as in the implementation and evaluation of education programs.  Professor Solberg has worked with medical students over the years on a wide variety of projects (during and outside of the MSRP period) and will work with interested medical students to identify their areas of interest in medical ethics and law and develop a research question, and mentor them to project completion. Please contact Professor Solberg at lbsolberg@ufl.edu if you are interested in working with her on a research/scholarly project, and/or for any general questions about the Medical Ethics and Law track.  

Ray Moseley, PhD

Dr. Moseley is an Associate Professor in the Program in Bioethics, Law and Medical Professionalism and is the Director of the UH Health/Shands Clinical Ethics Service.  Dr. Moseley’s research interests include innovative ways to accomplish informed consent and using new technologies and AI to assist with proxy decision-making and ensuring Advance Directives are appropriately understood and honored. In addition to participating and developing research projects in these and other research areas, Ethics Track students working with Dr. Moseley could develop expertise in clinical ethics consulting by participating in the Clinical Ethics Service activities including meetings, conferences and case consultation and hospital policy analysis and development.  For more information about working with Dr. Moseley or to discuss a possible research project, please email: rmoseley@ufl.edu

Bryan Cwik, PhD

Dr. Cwik is Associate Professor in the Bioethics, Law, and Medical Professionalism Program, Dept of Community Health and Family Medicine, in the UF College of Medicine, a member of the UF Genetics Institute and UF Working Group on AI Ethics and Policy, and an affiliate faculty member in the UF Philosophy Department.  From 2025-2028, he will be a Glenn and Deborah Renwick Faculty Fellow in AI Ethics.  Dr. Cwik works on a number of issues in biomedical ethics, including emerging medical technologies, genetics, global health, public health, and topics in the theory of bioethics.  Prof. Cwik is interested in working with students on these and other topics, and is especially interested in students with an interest in philosophical bioethics and history of medicine.  You can contact Dr. Cwik to discuss potential research topics at cwikb@ufl.edu.

Bill Allen, M.Div., J.D.

Professor Allen has served on both the UF IRB01 and the Shands Ethics Consult Service. He teaches and publishes in areas of clinical bioethics and human subjects research and regulation. Most of his publications have focused on end-of-life decision-making and advance directives. Recent publications in this area have focused on special ethical and legal issues for persons with dementia, including advance care planning and implementation of special measures for dementia patients.
Another area of special focus has been ethical and legal issues in genetics, especially issues of privacy and confidentiality, genetic counseling, prenatal genetic diagnosis and in vitro fertilization, but also genetic alteration for enhancement purposes.
More recently, Professor Allen has begun to publish in the area of neuro-ethics, including deep brain stimulation. He also has continuing interests in religion, culture and medicine, as well as American history of medicine. Students interested in working with Professor Allen should email him at wmallen@ufl.edu

For an MSRP:

Students interested in conducting in depth philosophical research on topics in biomedical ethics, with the aim of producing a substantive piece for submission to a bioethics journal.  Of special interest are topics related to emerging medical technologies, genetics, global health ethics, public health ethics, and bioethical theory, and topics that involve the intersection of medical ethics and history of medicine.  As an example, students I have or am supervising have conducted research on social medicine approaches to integrated HIV care and applications of AI in radiology.