Prof. Kenneth Goodman, PhD
University of Miami

Wednesday, October 28, 2009
11:30AM - 1:00PM
Location: Mississippi Room, Coffman Memorial Union

Prof. Goodman's lecture will focus on how platitudes about the transformation of health care in an information-intensive world do not begin to capture the scope of the challenges we face. From electronic personal health records, to digitized genomes, to ubiquitous public health surveillance, health information technology is requiring a recalibration of some of bioethics' most fundamental navigational tools: valid consent, privacy, access to care, professionalism. He argues that while there are good reasons to believe this technology will improve the health of individuals and populations, the use of intelligent machines is not only a challenge - it might be morally obligatory. He will discuss how this tension between a new and promising technology and generally uncontroversial and shared values is not new. The history of contemporary bioethics has been in many respects a high-stakes history of balancing the risks and benefits of new (and sometimes not-so-new) machines. It has become clear that when it comes to new technology, there is rarely, if ever, a way to turn back.

Julie Jacko, PhD University of Minnesota Director, Institute for Health Informatics	Joe Konstan, PhD University of Minnesota Distinguished McKnight University Professor, Associate Department Head, Department of Computer Science and Engineering