The Quiet Consultant of Ethics Retires
Dr. Kenneth Goodman, a “center of gravity” for issues that matter, built the Miller School into a world-renowned biomedical ethics powerhouse.
Kenneth W. Goodman, Ph.D., whose three decades of commitment and perseverance brought global prominence in the field of biomedical ethics to the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, has retired from the University of Miami.
Dr. Goodman, a professor of medicine at the Miller School, with secondary appointments in UM’s departments of philosophy and public health sciences and the School of Nursing and Health Studies, was director of the Miller School’s Institute for Bioethics and Health Policy, which he founded in 1991, the year he received his Ph.D. in philosophy from UM.
“I have been at the Miller School for more than 30 years and have watched it embrace the importance of ethics in research, clinical care and public health,” Dr. Goodman said. “That is perhaps one of my greatest satisfactions. I am surrounded by colleagues who know and appreciate what we are doing.”
Ethics: The DNA of the Miller School
Dr. Goodman gives much of the credit for the current strength of the Miller School’s ethics program to Henri R. Ford, M.D., M.H.A., dean and chief academic officer of the Miller School.
“When he was interviewing for the position, he told me that he thought ethics should be part of the DNA of our institution,” Dr. Goodman said. “He followed through on that. It’s one of the reasons the Miller School enjoys the reputation it does.”
“Ken is a cherished professor, a tremendous friend and a collaborator and partner to all,” Dean Ford said. “He is a thought leader in medical ethics and is internationally known for his contributions to the field. Without question, we are going to miss him.”
Longtime colleagues also recognize the strength of Dr. Goodman’s contributions.
“Ken’s story is one of persistence and effectiveness winning the day,” said Laurence B. Gardner, M.D., professor of medicine and senior advisor to the dean, who was one of Dr. Goodman’s early mentors. “He has left a biomedical ethics program that is on solid ground. And you have to realize that he was a non-clinician Ph.D. who was able to put himself in the role of clinicians like me and help us with the really thorny issues. He was the quiet consultant to senior leadership and we had many conversations about challenges we were facing.”
Dr. Goodman also acknowledged Norman Altman, V.M.D., professor emeritus of pathology and laboratory medicine and the Miller School’s former vice provost for research, and Steven Ullmann, Ph.D., academic director of UM’s Health Executive M.B.A. program and the Miller School’s M.D./M.B.A. program, and director of the Center for Health Management and Policy at the Miami Herbert Business School.
“Lanny, Norm and Steve were utterly essential in the development of our ethics mission and presence,” Dr. Goodman said.
One faculty member who considers Dr. Goodman his own mentor is Jeffrey Brosco, M.D., Ph.D., professor of pediatrics at the Miller School who directs the Division of Services for Children with Special Health Needs under the government’s Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).
“I met Ken when I started at Jackson Memorial Hospital as a resident,” Dr. Brosco said. “He taught me what I know about clinical ethics, and it has become an important part of my career. We became sort of a Batman and Robin team over the years, trying to bring a sense of bioethics to health policy in the State of Florida and to pediatric hospitals. For example, during the pandemic, we dealt with the potential shortage of ventilators and how to decide which patients would receive them, as well as how the health disparities of certain racial or ethnic groups factored into such decisions.
“More than that,” Dr. Brosco continued, “Ken was a center of gravity for the issues that go beyond what is in the news at any given moment. He created a place where like-minded people could gather and discuss the perennial concerns, the things that matter across time — what it means to be a person, what it means to be sick, what it means to be a healer.”
Dr. Goodman expressed his appreciation for the opportunity to partner with others in establishing the UHealth Ethics Service, which now, thanks to Tanira Ferreira, M.D., chief medical officer of University of Miami Hospital & Clinics, enjoys a robust clinical consultation service and is seen as a model for academic medical centers around the state.
“What we have accomplished, with Dr. Ferreira’s encouragement and support, helps patients, clinicians and our community,” Dr. Goodman said.
Michael Huber, M.D., M.S., assistant professor of clinical medicine at the Miller School, who became the Institute for Bioethics and Health Policy’s medical director and will succeed Dr. Goodman as director of the UHealth Ethics Service, offered this perspective:
“Dr. Goodman was an exemplar bioethicist. He created and nurtured an institute that led formative and novel research and education, and directly shaped policy in Florida and across the world. Most importantly, he helped countless clinicians, patients and families navigate ethical challenges. We all hope to live up to his legacy and carry the work of the Institute forward.”
A Partnership with Jackson Health System
Dr. Goodman is especially proud of the early and ongoing ethics partnership with Jackson Health System.
“Simple morality requires that you address health disparities,” he said. “Our partnership with Jackson has been one of the great accomplishments in North American medicine. We do it because we recognize that there are people in Miami-Dade County who lack basic services. We do it because it is the right thing to do. And we do it because people are better and healthier for it.”
Another point of pride for Dr. Goodman is that the institute is the only World Health Organization (WHO) ethics center in the United States. The WHO has turned to the Miller School for expertise in research ethics, clinical practice and information technology.
“Our center has contributed to the creation of WHO global guidance and policies on ethics and public health and surveillance, research ethics, pandemic preparedness, clinical ethics, responsible use of life sciences and, most recently, ethics and governance of AI for health care systems,” said Sergio Litewka, M.D., M.P.H., associate professor in the DeWitt Daughtry Family Department of Surgery and the Institute for Bioethics and Health Policy’s director of global bioethics. “These are just a few of our collaborations, and Ken’s contributions offered novel standpoints and lucid analyses that are reflected in all of the WHO biomedical ethics documents.”
Ethics in information technology is a particularly fast-growing area, given the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence across the entire field of medicine. Toward that end, Dr. Goodman has been working with Azizi Seixas, Ph.D., associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, director of The Media and Innovation Lab, associate director of the Center for Translational Sleep and Circadian Sciences and interim chair of the Miller School’s Department of Informatics and Health Data Science.
“Azizi appreciates the importance of ethics and ethical scrutiny in health information technology,” Dr. Goodman said.
“From the very beginning, Ken brought not only deep expertise in bioethics, but also a rare ability to apply those ethical frameworks directly to the challenges we face in informatics, AI and health data science,” Dr. Seixas said. “In a field that is rapidly evolving, where new algorithms and data sources emerge faster than policies or regulations, Ken’s insights have been essential in ensuring that our innovations remain patient-centered, equitable and responsible. As we navigate the promises and perils of AI, Ken’s leadership has helped us wrestle with complex questions of privacy, bias, transparency and agency, questions that increasingly define the future of health care innovation.”
Dr. Goodman now holds the rank of professor emeritus, and although retired from the University of Miami, he is remaining active in the ethics field through conferences and speaking engagements. Looking ahead, he foresees two major challenges to biomedical ethics.
“Continuing to recognize the utility of applied ethics for critical thinking is going to be a challenge, because it is easily misdescribed,” he said. “The other challenge is going to be the appropriate use of technology, including AI, in medicine and biomedical research. Technology is giving us increasingly powerful tools, and we need to do a better job of learning how to use them appropriately.”
Tags: bioethics, Dean Henri Ford, Department of Public Health Sciences, Dr. Kenneth Goodman, Dr. Laurence Gardner, Institute for Bioethics and Health Policy