For more information on the Ethics Services team at Providence Health Care, please click on the names below.
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Our Ethicists |
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Dr. Anita Ho
Dr. Anita Ho is Assistant Professor in Philosophy at the W. Maurice Young Centre for Applied Ethics at the University of British Columbia (UBC), and Director of Ethics Services at PHC, specializing in bioethics, research ethics, social/political philosophy, and disability studies. Prior to joining the Centre in 2008, she was an Associate Professor in Philosophy and Co-Coordinator for the Centre for Women, Economic Justice, and Public Policy at the College of St. Catherine in Minnesota, and Assistant Professor in Philosophy at UBC.
Anita's main research interests in bioethics include cross-cultural ethics, health-care access and disparity, physician-patient relationship, minority care experience, decision-making models, and various concepts of autonomy. Her recent articles can be found in publications such as The Journal of Medical Ethics, American Journal of Bioethics, Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, Teaching Philosophy, and The Journal of Clinical Ethics.
She is currently working on a book-length manuscript on trust and autonomy in clinical and research medicine, supported by a research grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. She is also working with the American Refugee Committee as a volunteer consultant on a collaborative and community-based research project on human rights issues facing refugees and internally displaced people in Rwanda and South Sudan. In addition to her teaching and research duties, Anita is currently an associate chair for the UBC Behavioral Research Ethics Board. Please click here for Anita's CV.
Selected Recent Articles:
“They Just Don’t Get It!” When Family Disagrees with Expert Opinion. Journal of Medical Ethics 35(8) (August 2009), 497-501.
“Using Family Members as Interpreters in the Clinical Setting.” The Journal of Clinical Ethics 19(3) (Fall 2008), 223-233.
“The Individualist Model of Autonomy and the Challenge of Disability.” Journal of Bioethical Inquiry 5 (May 2008), 193-207.
“Relational Autonomy or Undue Pressure? Family's Role in Medical Decision-Making.” Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences 22 (March 2008), 128-135.
Anita can be contacted by phone at 604-806-8851 or 604-817-4219 or by email at atho@providencehealth.bc.ca
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Br. Tom Maddix
Brother Thomas Maddix, CSC, D.Min joined Providence in August 2004 as Vice President, Mission, Ethics & Spirituality. A member of the Brothers of Holy Cross, he brings to the position a strong background of leadership in mission and organizational integrity, and the fostering of a culture grounded in a living spiritually within and for Catholic health organizations.
Prior to joining Providence, Tom was Vice President, Organizational Advancement with the Caritas Health Group in Edmonton. His areas of responsibility there included mission ethics, spiritual care and leadership development. He also served for 10 years as Director of Mission Services for the Alberta Catholic Health Corporation and taught courses at St. Stephen's Theological College at the University of Alberta.
Tom received his Doctor of Ministry in Organization Ethics and Spirituality from the Pacific School of Theology in Berkeley California. He began his career in Catholic education, teaching high school, college and at Notre Dame University in South Bend, Indiana. He is also the author of two books, a contributor to two others and has written numerous articles.
Tom can be reached by phone at 604-806-8528 or by email at eturtle@providencehealth.bc.ca
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Dr. Patricia Rodney
Patricia (Paddy) Rodney, RN, MSN, PhD, is an Associate Professor and Undergraduate Program Coordinator with the University of British Columbia (UBC) School of Nursing. She is also a Faculty Associate with the Mary and Maurice Young Centre for Applied Ethics at UBC, a Research Associate with Providence Health Care Ethics Services, and President of the Canadian Bioethics Society.
Paddy is currently a member of the ethics committee at BC Women's Hospital in Vancouver, BC, and she is an ethics consultant on the BC Provincial Advisory Panel on Cardiac Health.
Paddy's research and publications focus on end-of-life decision-making and the moral climate of health care delivery. She has a particular interest in moral agency and the difficulties that nurses and other health care professionals experience in the current moral climate of health care delivery. She is engaged in a program of research with academic and practice-based colleagues (using participatory action and qualitative methodologies) aimed at improving the moral climate of health care delivery.
Paddy can be reached by phone at 604-822-7507 or by email at Paddy.Rodney@nursing.ubc.ca
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Dr. David Unger
Dave is a family doctor whose career has many dimensions. He has worked as an Emergency Room physician, and a community based family practitioner. He has worked in urban and rural settings, and has worked throughout Northern Canada. His practice has, at different times, focused on obstetric and maternity care, sports medicine and it now centers on HIV/AIDS and the care of the marginalized of Vancouver's inner city. He is currently completing a Master's Degree in Bioethics through the Albany Medical School in New York. He hopes to integrate bioethics into his current practice, and to integrate his practice experience into the bioethics team at Providence Health Care.
Dave can be reached by email at daunger@providencehealth.bc.ca
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Our Ethics Fellows |
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Daniel Buchman, BA, MSW, RSW
Daniel is a doctoral student in the University of British Columbia's Interdisciplinary Studies Graduate Program, focusing on bioethics. He is under the supervision of Dr. Judy Illes and Dr. Peter B. Reiner at the National Core for Neuroethics, and Dr. Anita Ho, from Providence Healthcare and the W. Maurice Young Centre for Applied Ethics. Daniel is a Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholar from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).
Daniel received his Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Social Studies of Medicine from McGill University and his Master of Social Work with a specialization in Addiction Studies from the University of Toronto. During his undergraduate degree, Daniel spent two summers as a Clinical Ethics Summer Student in a geriatric hospital in Toronto, a research studentship associated with the University of Toronto’s Joint Centre for Bioethics.
Daniel’s research interests combine thinking in bioethics, medical sociology, medical anthropology, and the philosophy of psychiatry. His doctoral contribution aims to develop a deeper understanding of how the dissemination of knowledge from the neurosciences is influencing the gaze of addiction as a “brain disease”. Daniel is interested in examining how images and language from both neuroscience and neurotechnology impact attributions of responsibility for both developing and overcoming addiction, in addition to how these technologies might affect perceptions of self among people living with addiction. As a complement to his academic interests, Daniel has worked as a clinical social worker in front-line and outpatient addiction and mental health settings, in addition to inpatient work in acute care hospitals.
Daniel has presented conference papers at both the national and international level. His recently published articles can be found in the American Journal of Bioethics-Neuroscience, Addiction, the Minnesota Journal of Law, Science & Technology, Neuroethics, Harm Reduction Journal, and the Journal of Ethics in Mental Health.
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Alice Hawkins, MA (Oxon), MS, MPH
Alice is Doctoral Candidate at the University of British Columbia in the Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies Program and is based at both the Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics and the W. Maurice Young Centre for Applied Ethics. Alice’s PhD research explores access issues and barriers to predictive genetic testing, and explores the use of telemedicine to address such access issues in rural communities. Her PhD supervisors are Michael Hayden (Medical Genetics), Bruce McManus (Pathology) and Anita Ho (Applied Ethics).
Alice holds a MPH (policy and management) from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, an MS (Genetic Counselling) from Sarah Lawrence College, New York, and an MA Oxon (Human Sciences) from Oxford University, England. Prior to UBC, Alice worked as a genetic counsellor and clinical coordinator at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York.
Alice is a trainee in both the Ethics of Health Policy and Research Training Program and the Child and Family Research Institute Graduate Studentship Program, and holds a Four Year Fellowship from the University of British Columbia. Alice has served on the Research Ethics Board (behavioural and clinical) at the UBC since 2008. She is an active member of the National Society of Genetic Counselors, the Canadian Bioethics Society and the Canadian Association of Research Ethics Boards.
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Matthew Voell, J.D.
Matthew Voell joins Providence Health Care after completing a law degree at the University of British Columbia. Prior to attending UBC Matt studied analytic philosophy at the University of Wisconsin. In addition to his work with Providence Matt is a research assistant with the Intellectual Property and Policy Research Group. The IPPRG, centered at UBC's W. Maurice Young Centre for Applied Ethics, explores the viability of alternative intellectual property regimes for use upon the products of genomic research.
Matt brings to Providence a Catholic education and background. He grew up in a strong Catholic home and spent four years studying at St. Lawrence Seminary, a Capuchin Franciscan minor seminary in Mt. Calvary, Wisconsin. When not working Matt enjoys playing basketball, tennis and squash and reading and writing. His specific research interests include the regulation of biotechnology, public health law and ethics, human enhancement and the principles of dignity and autonomy.
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Jennifer Bell, BA (Honours), MA
Jennifer Bell is a doctoral student in the University of British Columbia's Interdisciplinary Studies Graduate Program where she is under the supervision of Dr. Lynda Balneaves in the School of Nursing and Dr. Anita Ho at the W. Maurice Young Centre for Applied Ethics. Her dissertation project aims to develop cancer patient-centred decision support strategies that will address the tenets of informed consent but acknowledge the social and personal context of autonomous treatment decision-making. Previous to joining Providence Health Care as an Ethics Fellow, Jennifer completed a one year, full time clinical and organizational ethics fellowship at the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics in Toronto, Ontario.
Jennifer received her BA (Honours) in Philosophy with a specialist in Bioethics from the University of Toronto in 2004 and her MA in Philosophy with a specialization in Biomedical Ethics at McGill University in 2007. Her main research interests include the physician-patient relationship, models of autonomy and treatment decision making, social justice, psychosocial oncology, research ethics, feminist bioethics, and understandings of self in chronic illness.
Jennifer holds a three year Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarship from CIHR, is a doctoral fellow in the CIHR/NCIC psychosocial oncology research training program (PORT), and the CIHR Ethics of Health Research and Policy Training Program. Her recently published articles can be found in the Journal of Medical Ethics, the American Journal of Bioethics, Social Science & Medicine, HEC Forum, JONAS Healthcare Law, Ethics, and Regulation, BMC Medical Ethics, and BMC Health Services Research.
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Office Management |
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June Monthatawil
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