Dana Howard, PhD

About

Biography

I have doctoral training from Brown University and was a postdoctoral fellow in the Center for Bioethics at the National Institutes of Health. My research focuses on bioethics and philosophy, with specific research interests in medical decision-making, clinician/patient relationships, philosophy of disability, reproductive health and research ethics. My team utilizes multisite, mixed-methods bioethics research, and qualitative, quantitative, normative and legal surveillance methodologies to explore the complex ways that legal and institutional policies and public health guidance structure and complicate people’s everyday medical choices and access to health care.

My research has explored clinician experiences of moral distress in response to public health laws and its impact on patient care, the role of clinician discretion in the context of shared decision-making, the use of predictive algorithms regarding patient preferences in medical decision-making and the ethical implications of addiction policy. My goal is to have the concepts and evidence to develop targeted policy interventions that empower clinicians and their patients to make informed health care decisions that can best serve their interests, as well as those of their broader communities.

My research has been published in high-impact medical journals, such as JAMA Network OPEN, Journal of General Internal Medicine, Neuro-Oncology, and Pediatrics; as well as leading bioethics and philosophy journals, such as the Journal of the American Philosophical Association, The American Journal of Bioethics, Philosophical Studies, The Journal of Medical Ethics and The Journal of Political Philosophy.

Credentials

Research