The title of this year’s talk is “Physicians, Public Speech and Politics.” It will be presented by Dr. Rebecca Weintraub Brendel, M.D., J.D. on Wednesday, November 7 from 4:00 – 5:30 p.m. in Ford Auditorium at University Hospital.
Weintraub Brendel is the director of the master’s degree program at the Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics. She bases her clinical work in psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) where she is the director of Law and Ethics at the Center for Law, Brain, and Behavior; provides medical oversight for the hospital’s inpatient guardianship team; and practices clinical and forensic psychiatry.
Dr. Brendel’s clinical practice has focused on patients with complex psychosocial problems, including trauma, dementia, mental illness, homelessness, substance abuse, decisional incapacity, lack of community support, and poverty. This broad work has informed her educational efforts and research interests focusing on issues at the interface of psychiatry, medicine, law, ethics, and human rights. She is an avid teacher and lecturer in both medical and legal settings.
Dr. Brendel graduated from both University of Chicago Law School and Pritzker School of Medicine. She completed her psychiatry residency at MGH and McLean Hospital and a forensic psychiatry fellowship at MGH. From 2006 – 2007, Dr. Brendel was the Edmond J. Safra Faculty Fellow in Ethics at Harvard University.
“We are delighted to welcome Dr. Brendel to our campus in November for this esteemed lectureship,” said Debra Pinals, M.D., clinical professor of psychiatry and director of the Program in Psychiatry, Law and Ethics at U-M. “Dr. Brendel brings a depth of knowledge to the field of psychiatry and ethics, and will be speaking on a timely topic related to physicians, politics and public speech. She is well suited to speak to the delicate intersection of these areas of focus from the perspective of a mental health and legal professional.”
The University of Michigan Department of Psychiatry established the Raymond W. Waggoner Lectureship on Ethics and Values in Medicine in 1996. This lectureship was created in honor of the late Dr. Waggoner, emeritus professor and past chairman of the Department of Psychiatry, who throughout his career and to all who knew him, exemplified the highest standards of integrity and ethics.
The esteemed lectureship is an annual event to recognize Dr. Waggoner’s enormous contributions to the Michigan Medicine medical center and to the profession, and to promulgate his interest in medical ethics.
For further information, please contact:
Debra A. Pinals, M.D.
734-232-0352
or
Sandra Glover
Administrative Assistant Senior
University of Michigan Department of Psychiatry
734-232-0352
