Wednesday, October 21, 2009


Double Dipper to Serve as Commentator

in talk at University of Minnesota

About Ethics


If we don't have integrity here at the U, then we have nothing...


"Computers, Patients, and the Health of Populations:
Next Steps in Ethics and Informatics"

Prof. Kenneth Goodman, PhD
University of Miami

Wednesday, October 28, 2009


Commentators for this lecture are Prof. Julie Jacko, PhD, Director, Institute for Health Informatics

Now a lot of strange things have happened at the U in the area of ethics. For example we had Dr. David Polly speak in the Mini-Medical School last Spring on the ethics of industry/university conflict of interest. We had Professor Leo Furcht serve as co-chair of a committee that was to develop new rules for conflict of interest in the med school. Dr. Furcht himself had been disciplined for a major conflict of interest a few years earlier.

Arguments used by Dr. Cerra and Dr. Powell - former Dean and now a faculty member in Laboratory Medicine and Pathology (chaired by Dr. Furcht) - for Dr. Furcht's being on the committee were summarized by Margaret Soltan in her post about the Hannnibal Lechter executive strategy entitled: It takes a thief.

So what's wrong with Professor Jacko serving as commenter on a lecture about ethics?

Ahem...

Business As Usual at the U? Georgia Tech Confirms Tenure Revocation

Double dipping professors to have salaries, responsibilities reduced

Oh what a tangled web we weave (from the Atlanta Constitution)

I could go on, but you get the idea. Tolerating this kind of behavior by the University administration is sickening and demonstrates weak moral fiber. If we don't have integrity here at the U, what do we have?

Well we have a president who has the nerve to make statements like this:

"I think we need to put ourselves in the position of acting according to the highest ethical principles. I believe our people do that now and I believe our people will be doing that in the future as well." President Bruininks (Daily: 6-18-08)

President Bruininks, do you really think that people both inside and outside the U don't realize what is happening here? How long is this situation going to continue without action on your part?


No comments: