Intensive Scholars Institute:
Developing Leadership for Health Care Systems
June 11th - July 6th, 2007

Program in Ethics and Policy in Health Care Systems
Center for Biomedical Ethics
University of Virginia

Please click here for an application

Overall Mission: To lay the groundwork for future leaders in health care systems to manage ethical conflicts

Objectives: To help participants in Intensive Summer Institute learn to 
   - Identify stakeholders in healthcare systems
   - Clarify the competing values of stakeholders
   - Prioritize competing values

Programmatic Activities:  Intensive Summer Institute participants will begin to develop the necessary knowledge, attitudes, and skills required for managing ethical conflicts as future leaders through two activities:
1. Participating in an intensive seminar series that includes reading and discussing seminar materials with faculty
2. Researching and developing a case study under interdisciplinary faculty guidance

INTENSIVE SEMINAR SERIES TOPICS AND TENTATIVE FACULTY

Seminar 1.  Brief overview healthcare systems (Chen/Mills/Tereskerz)

Purpose: 
To introduce participants to the various components of healthcare systems
 Healthcare delivery system;
 Research enterprise;
Pharmaceutical/biotechnology/device industries
Public health;
Global health
The legal system under which these components function
To briefly discuss values embedded in each

Seminar 2. Healthcare Delivery System (White/Spencer)

Purpose:
 To identify its stakeholders
 To identify the relationships among them
 To identify competing values
 To discuss legal and regulatory framework
 To identify "challenges" facing the delivery system
 To discuss some suggested reforms.

Seminar 3. Research Enterprise (Tereskerz/Moreno)

Purpose:

To introduce participants to the role of the research enterprise;
To identify its stakeholders
To identify the relationships among them
To identify competing values
To discuss legal and regulatory framework
To identify "challenges" facing the research enterprise
To discuss suggested reforms

Seminar 4. Pharmaceuticals/Biotechnology/Device Industry (Tereskerz/Mills)

Purpose

  To identify stakeholders
  To identify the relationships among them
  To identify competing values
  To discuss legal and regulatory framework
  To identify "challenges" facing the delivery system
  To discuss some suggested reforms

Seminar 5. Evolving Technologies and their possible effect on the Society (Moreno/Davis)

Purpose: To introduce students to the controversies surrounding
   Stem cell research
   Genetic and genomic discoveries
   Advances in neurological research
   To discuss how these controversies can be managed

Seminar 6. Public Health (Chen/Moreno)

Purpose: 
 To identify stakeholders
 To identify the relationships among them
 To identify competing values
 To discuss legal and regulatory framework
 To identify "challenges" facing the public health system
 To discuss some suggested reforms.

Seminar 7.    Financing the Delivery System (Mills/Spencer)

Purpose:

 To look more closely at the various ways of financing the delivery system
 To examine competing values and how they are affected
 To identify and discuss "challenges" facing the system
 To discuss reform proposals

Seminar 8. Global Health (Mills/TBA)

Purpose: 
  To use the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa to:
  To identify stakeholders
  To identify the relationships among them
  To identify competing values
  To discuss legal and regulatory framework
  To identify the "challenges" facing developed and developing nations
  To discuss current policy.

Seminar 9. Professionalism in Health Care Systems (Mills/Chen)

Purpose: 
To discuss changing notions of professionalism in healthcare delivery


Seminar 10 and 11 are devoted to reviewing student projects

The last meeting will be held with sponsors students will be expected to have an "executive summary" of their work for them

CASE STUDY TOPICS

Students will be formed into teams.  These teams will reflect a diversity of interests.  For instance, we will pair pre-medical students with pre-law students or business students. 

Teams will be asked to choose a case study topic for further research.  Students will be asked to:

  Identify an important issue facing the healthcare system
  Identify the stakeholders
  Identify the values of each stakeholder
  Identify whether or not there are values conflicts
  State the impact of the issue on each stakeholder
  Prioritize values
  Assess the pros/cons and likely consequences of various courses of    action
Produce a consensus statement
  Make a decision on the "way forward"
  Explain what values will not be accommodated and why

Case study topics will be chosen by participants, but may include topics such as:

The Uninsured in America
Controversies in stem cell research
The Role of the FDA in Regulating Pharmaceuticals
The Role of Private Industry in Financing Health Care Benefits:  Can it be Sustained?
Conflicts of Interest in Academic Research
Pharmaceuticals and the Portfolio of Medicines Being Produced
The Changing Role of Physicians in Society
The Community Hospital:  Can its Mission be Sustained?
The Academic Medical Center:  Can its Mission be Sustained?
Is "Consumer Empowerment" the Answer to the Financing Crisis?
Is "Direct to Consumer" Advertising a Benefit or Burden?
What the Nursing Shortage will Mean to an Aging Society