Professor Richard Gunderman

ASB Bank Visiting Professor

The Difference Ethics Makes

When ethics appears in the popular media, it is often in connection with a lapse in judgment or even frank scandal.  Over time, ethics has come to be associated with procedures, rules, and laws that help us to avoid censure.  In fact, however, ethics is much more that a collection of "Thou shalt nots."  Ethics concerns human character, the habits of thought and action that render us more or less admirable and people we would like to emulate.  Ethics is the inquiry into the personal attributes of good human beings and good human lives.  Healthcare has not realized its potential to enrich the lives of patients and health professionals largely because we have failed to appreciate the vital role of ethics in helping us to be our best.  Through this presentation, we reexamine the difference deep dedication to ethics can make in our lives.

Richard Gunderman is Professor of Radiology, Pediatrics, Medical Education, Philosophy, Liberal Arts, and Philanthropy at Indiana University, where he also serves as Vice Chair of Radiology. He is also a Fellow of the Tobias Center for Leadership Excellence and serves on the Boards of Governors of the Kinsey Institute and the Institute for Advanced Study. He received his AB Summa Cum Laude from Wabash College, MD and PhD (Committee on Social Thought) from the University of Chicago, and MPH from Indiana University. He is a six-time recipient of the Indiana University Trustees Teaching Award, and has also received the Wayne Booth Award, the Robert Shellhamer Award for the Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, the Indiana University School of Medicine Faculty Teaching Award, the Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the Herman Frederic Lieber Memorial All-University Award for Teaching Excellence. He is Secretary-Elect of the Faculty of the Indiana University School of Medicine. He is the author of over 220 scholarly articles and has published five books. His most recent book, We Make a Life by What We Give, was published by Indiana University Press in April 2008. His next book, Leadership in Healthcare, will be published by Springer in January 2009.