Posted by William Nunnelley on 2012-04-13

Two longtime healthcare professionals were honored for their contributions to healthcare ethics during the 11th annual Healthcare Ethics and Law Institute (HEAL) conference sponsored by Samford University's McWhorter School of Pharmacy Friday, April 13.

Dr. John Lantos, M.D., director of the Children's Mercy Bioethics Center, Children's Mercy Hospital and professor of pediatrics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, and David Brushwood, R.Ph., J.D., professor of pharmaceutical outcomes and policy at the University of Florida College of Pharmacy, received Pellegrino Medals at a special ceremony.  (Lantos, left, and Brushwood, right, are pictured with 2010 Pellegrino medalist Joy Hinson Penticuff, professor and founding director of the baccalaureate nursing program at Concordia University Texas.)

The medal is named for Dr. Edmund D. Pellegrino, the first recipient of a lifetime achievement award from the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities. The medal has been presented to world renowned clinical ethicists for the 11 years of the HEAL Institute's existence.

Lantos, Brushwood and Penticuff spoke during the HEAL program, which explored the topic, "Moral Distress at the Bedside: A Role for Hospital Ethics Committees."  The conference was designed to help Alabama institutional ethics committees at all levels of development with some of today's most pressing healthcare ethics and law issues and problems.

Lantos, formerly chief of general pediatrics and professor of pediatrics at the University of Chicago, has focused his research on ethical issues in innovative therapy in pediatrics.  The author of more than 150 journal articles as well as books and chapters, he has testified before the President's Council on Bioethics about the ethics of research in children.

Brushwood, a graduate of the schools of pharmacy and law at the University of Kansas, taught at West Virginia University and Philadelphia College of Pharmacy before joining the Florida pharmacy school.  His research deals with regulating for outcomes, pharmacist professional responsibility and pain management policy.

 
Samford is a leading Christian university offering undergraduate programs grounded in the liberal arts with an array of nationally recognized graduate and professional schools. Founded in 1841, Samford is the 87th-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. Samford enrolls 6,101 students from 45 states, Puerto Rico and 16 countries in its 10 academic schools: arts, arts and sciences, business, divinity, education, health professions, law, nursing, pharmacy and public health. Samford fields 17 athletic teams that compete in the tradition-rich Southern Conference and ranks 6th nationally for its Graduation Success Rate among all NCAA Division I schools.