Division of General Medical Sciences
The Division of General Medical Sciences at the School of Medicine was established in 1986 as a department whose purpose is to provide an organizational unit with interdisciplinary research and education objectives.
Special centers, with individual directors and missions, currently based in the division are: centers for adolescent health, bio-architectonics, biomedical ethics, cancer research, international health, and physical medicine and rehabilitation.
James A Willson, M.D. (University of Alabama)
Professor and Director of Center
The CWRU/Ireland Cancer Research Center is an interdisciplinary research program involving interaction of researchers and clinicians at the School of Medicine and three major affiliated teaching hospitals, including University Hospitals of Cleveland (UHC) and its Ireland Cancer Center, the Cleveland Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center and MetroHealth Medical Center (MHMC). Its purpose is to translate basic science advances as rapidly as possible into clinical efforts, which will provide new and better options in cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment. It is a National Cancer Institute (NCI) designated Clinical Cancer Center, and maintains an affiliation with the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG), the Childrens Cancer Study Group (CCSG), and the gynecologic oncology group.
Researchers and clinicians associated with the Cancer Center participate in one or more of seven organized, inter-disciplinary programs, each focused on a different area of cancer research. These include programs in molecular biology of oncogenesis, molecular virology, hematopoietic and immune cell biology, radiation biology, cancer genetics, developmental therapeutics and cancer prevention and control. These research efforts are facilitated by twelve shared resource facilities supported by the center: Athymic Animals, Biostatistics, Clinical Trials, Flow Cytometry, Hematopoietic Stem Cell, Histology, Molecular Biology, Radiation Resources, Tissue Culture, Clinical Pharmacology, Genetics and Monoclonal Antibody.
Frederick C. Robbins, M.D. (Harvard University)
Professor Emeritus and Director of Center
The School of Medicine established a Center for Adolescent Health in 1990. The center was founded in recognition of the multidimensional biopsychosocial problems of contemporary youth. It seeks to address these issues through an integrated transdisciplinary approach that incorporates research, professional education, and programmatic intervention.
This unique program has four objectives:
1. to promote and coordinate collaborative research activities relevant to adolescents;
2. to provide interdisciplinary educational training at undergraduate, postbaccalaureate, and postgraduate levels for professionals interested in adolescent health;
3. to serve as a resource for Greater Cleveland community agencies that provide services for adolescents; and
4. to help promote the development of rational public policies addressing health and social issues that concern youth.
Although based at the School of Medicine, this center has developed relationships with other schools and departments at Case Western Reserve University. In addition, the center is the umbrella organization for Cuyahoga County's Adolescent Consortium, a networking organization for local youth-serving agencies.
Current research interests of the faculty include adolescent sexuality, HIV infection in adolescents, school-based health care, and interpersonal violence. In addition, the faculty is planning an interdisciplinary seminar on violence among adolescents and young adults. Research opportunities are available for interested students.
Raymond J. Lasek, Ph.D. (State University of New York-Upstate)
Professor and Director of Center
Bio-architectonics is the study of complex biological architectures. This unit was established to explore practical and integrative approaches for analyzing complex biological patterns. Ultimately, biological data take their meaning only in relation to living systems. Often, however, the complexities of these systems make it difficult to put the detailed data back into the context of real organisms. This center is dedicated to working out the methodology by building this bridge.
The center is emphasizing two concurrent research efforts:
1. the construction of practical theories and paradigms for rigorously analyzing complex architectures, and
2. the application of these techniques to the analysis of complex cytoplasmic patterns, using the intracellular dynamics of axoplasm as the model system.
Thomas H. Murray, Ph.D. (Princeton University)
Professor and Director of Center
The Center for Biomedical Ethics, which provides a forum for the study and discussion of ethical issues arising in medicine, has a threefold mission: scholarship, education, and community dialogue. The center has faculty from several disciplines, including ethics, philosophy, religion, law, political science, and medicine, who conduct research, teach, and take part in community dialogues.
In the past 20 years, we have recognized more clearly the enormous variety and complexity of ethical issues posed in and around medicine. Some questions concern individual patients. Other questions concern advances in biomedical science, and, finally, there are questions about health policy, justice, and the allocation of resources.
Center faculty, with the help of colleagues locally, nationally, and internationally, conduct research on these and other questions. A vigorous debate among scholars, practitioners, policymakers, and the public offers the best hope of enhancing our understanding of these difficult problems. With such understanding we improve our chances of making well informed and wise decisions.
Ethics is an increasingly important part of the educational program at the School of Medicine. Center faculty teach in the Core Academic Program, in clinical sciences, and in the Flexible Program. An extensive array of electives is now offered. One important program involves working with clinical faculty interested in ethics to assist them to become skilled teachers of ethics in clinical settings. Center faculty also work with residents and in continuing education.
Three times a year, the center publishes Center Views, a newsletter featuring faculty research, center activities, and issues of interest to the professional and lay communities.
In 1995,.the Center for Biomedical Ethics established a Master of Arts Degree Program in Bioethics, focusing on the ethical,cultural and policy dimensions of healthcare, technology and life sciences. The degree, which is completed in 27 credit hours, can be earned full-time in one year, or part-time in two or three years. Courses are scheduled to allow part-time students to continue their professional activities while completing the degree.
Foundations of Bioethics, a four-course, 12-credit-hour requirement, must be completed in the first two semesters. The fall semester covers foundations in ethics, ethical issues in human genetics, reproduction and fertility, the therapeutic relationship, and biomedical research ethics. The spring semester covers concepts of justice, healthcare rights and rationing, public health and public policy, organ transplantation, and death and dying. The class will meet twice a week in two-hour sessions.
All students must complete a 3-credit-hour Clinical Ethics Rotation. Students are exposed to clinical cases as they arise, to hospital ethics committees and ethics consultation programs, to institutional review boards (IRB), and hospital policies covering "do not resuscitate" orders (DNR), advance directives, withdrawal of artificial feeding, organ procurement and transplantation, and medical futility. They will become familiar with the clinical, psychological, social, professional and institutional context in which ethical problems arise. Based at various university-affiliated hospitals, students will be in the clinical environment for 10-12 hours per week for six months.
All students must take 12 credit hours of elective courses approved by the program faculty.
Admission policies conform to those of the CWRU School of Graduate Studies. In general, an applicant for admission and concurrent financial aid consideration must have completed application forms on file by March 1 for the fall semester.
For more information, contact:
Assistant to the Director,
Center for Biomedical Ethics
CWRU School of Medicine
10900 Euclid Avenue
Cleveland, Ohio 44106-4976
Phone: 216-368-8718
e-mail: cds3@po.cwru.edu
Bioethics (BETH)
BETH 401, Foundations in Bioethics I, 6
The field of bioethics covers ethical, social and policy issues in the life sciences and healthcare. This course considers ten basic topic areas in bioethics, including foundations in bioethics, ethics and genetics, reproduction and fertility, the therapeutic relationship, biomedical research ethics, concepts of distributive justice in healthcare, public health and policy, organ transplantation, death and dying and families, babies and children. It is required for the Master of Arts degree in bioethics. Classes meet in seminar format. Faculty include experts on specific topics. Preentry.
BETH 402, Foundations in Bioethics II, 6
This course continues the materials of BETH 401. It is required for the Master of Arts degree in bioethics. Classes meet in seminar format. Faculty include experts on specific topics.
Prerequisite: BETH 401
BETH 405, Clinical Ethics Rotation, 3
This course introduces students pursuing the Master of Arts degree in bioethics to clinical ethics. Students are exposed to clinical cases as they occur, to hospital ethics committees and ethics consultation programs, to institutional review boards, and to hospital policies covering "do not resuscitate" orders, advance directives, withdrawal of artificial feeding, organ transplantation and procurement, and medical futility. Students become familiar with the clinical, psychological, social, professional and institutional context in which ethical problems arise.
Prerequisite: BETH 401
BETH 450, Literature and Bioethics, 3
This one-week intensive course will consider arguments for (and against) narrative bioethics and its relation to clinical practice. Readings will include short stories, poems, Herman Melville's novella, Billy Budd, and essays in philosophy, literary criticism, narrative theory, bioethics, and the cultural study of medicine. Advance reading is necessary. Students will be responsible for class presentations and a final essay.
BETH 463, Anthropology and Bioethics, 3
This course review of theoretical work on anthropology and values, the discipline of bioethics, its philosophical roots, the body of anthropological work in bioethics, and critically examine a number of current bioethical issues in the United States and internationally. Cross listed with ANTH 463.
BETH 602, Special Topics in Bioethics, 3
Students will explore particular issues and themes in biomedical ethics in depth through independent study and research under the direction of a faculty member.
Prerequisite: BETH 401 (Foundations in Bioethics I) or consent of instructor.
Thomas M. Daniel, M.D. (Harvard University)
Professor and Director of Center
The Center for International Health was established in 1987 to link the numerous international health resources of the university, its affiliated institutions, and the northern Ohio community in multidisciplinary programs of research and education related to global health.
The challenges presented by world health problems are enormous, and the opportunities presented to the university community are great. In meeting these challenges and in responding to these opportunities at CWRU, we have the opportunity to promote health in the world and to enrich our community.
The center endeavors to foster programs that encourage creative people from many disciplines and cultures to work toward solutions of global health issues. The center was built on a strong base of specialized strengths in international health in many academic units of the university and its community. For example, the School of Medicine and its affiliated hospitals have substantial international health research, training, and clinical care programs in the Departments of Medicine, Pediatrics, Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Family Medicine, Molecular Biology and Microbiology, and Pathology. Other examples of international health programs are found in the School of Nursing, the Weatherhead School of Management, and the Department of Anthropology.
The Division of Geographic Medicine in the Department of Medicine is one of the world's leading centers for research and training in the application of modern immunology and molecular biology to global health problems. The Uganda-CWRU International Collaboration for AIDS Research is a large, multifaceted program for the study of AIDS and its complications in Uganda, with funding from many national and international agencies.
Educational programs sponsored by the Center for International Health include an annual course in international health, electives in international health and overseas rotations for medical students, and training programs at CWRU for visiting students and scholars from developing countries.
In the greater Cleveland community, there is substantial international expertise and experience in corporate, private, institutional and voluntary agency sectors. Citizen interest and commitment is high. The center seeks to provide a focal point for this interest, encouraging cooperative activities among these groups and academic units of the university.
Specific objectives of the center are:
1. Linkages: to foster interdisciplinary and intercultural linkages related to international health in the university and our community;
2. Training: to promote training programs throughout the university that will equip a cadre of scientists from diverse backgrounds to address global health issues;
3. Research: to facilitate collaborative, multidisciplinary research programs by investigators from CWRU and elsewhere that will lead to improved health in the world;
4. Application: to work with institutions and agencies in developing countries to help design and establish research and education programs that meet their needs and function as models of sustainable health systems.
The center is organized as a unit of the Division of General Medical Sciences of the School of Medicine. The center faculty are appointed with secondary appointments, their primary appointments being in departments throughout the university. The center has both faculty and community advisory committees.
International Health (INTH)
INTH 801, Annual Course/International Health, 4
Comprehensive, intensive course in international health given during four weeks in September with 32 classroom hours each week. Modalities of primary healthcare and the major infectious and parasitic diseases of developing countries are considered in depth. Lectures, including presentations by internationally recognized expert visiting faculty, as well as CWRU faculty, are supplemented by problem solving exercises and laboratories. The course presumes an MD degree; other health professionals or health science students may be admitted with consent of the course director.
INTH 802, Advanced Tropical Medicine, 3
Advanced course in tropical medicine and parasitology based on case problem seminars and laboratory exercises. Major parasitic diseases of developing countries studied in case problem format with laboratory exercises to develop skills in parasite identification. Faculty seminars present current state of tropical medicine research. Clinic practicums provide experience in disease problems of travelers to tropical regions. Intensive course meeting during second half of semester.
Prerequisite: INTH 801
Frederick M. Maynard, M.D. (University of Michigan)
Professor and Director of Center
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation is a medical specialty devoted to restoring people's maximum functional ability following a wide variety of disabling medical conditions, from traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury to acute and chronic back or knee pain. The Center for Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation was established in 1995 in order to coordinate and expand the research and training activities of the CWRU medical school that are devoted to the rehabilitation of people with disabling conditions and injuries.
The goals of the center are:
1. To foster high-quality innovative research that concerns impairments, disabilities and handicaps resulting from illness, injury and developmental processes and that focuses on health-related improvement (physical, cognitive, behavioral, and social) in human functioning and quality of life.
2. To promote and conduct effective teaching and training of principles and methods for rehabilitation of people with disabling chronic conditions and injuries at the undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate levels of medical education.
3. To enhance the quality and access to physical medicine and rehabilitation clinical services at CWRU-affiliated medical centers.
4. To foster collaborative rehabilitation training and research among clinicians and basic scientists from a wide range of disciplines within the university.
The center's faculty includes physicians and psychologists with varied backgrounds and having a broad array of clinical and research interests. Current research is focused on 1.) enhancing motor recovery and functional ability following paralysis from spinal cord injury and stroke, 2.) improving methods for managing bladder and bowel dysfunction following spinal cord injury and 3.) outcomes research related to health and human functioning, from specific functional abilities that can be enhanced by individual therapy methods to the cost-benefit of integrated trauma and rehabilitation care systems. Many opportunities are available for physicians, graduate students and allied health trainees to gain knowledge and skills related to clinical rehabilitation and/or related research areas.
CWRU Provost's Office --
About this server
-- Copyright 1996 CWRU
-- Unauthorized use prohibited
|