Center Faculty
Stanley J. Reiser, MD, MPA, PhD
Stanley J. Reiser is the Griff T. Ross Professor of Humanities and Technology in Health Care, and Associate Director, The John P. McGovern, M.D. Center for Health, Humanities, and the Human Spirit at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.
He is a nationally and internationally known scholar and teacher in ethics, technology assessment, history, and health policy. He received his undergraduate education at Columbia University, his medical degree from the State University of New York-Downstate Medical Center, and his masters and doctoral degrees from Harvard University.
Before coming to The University of Texas-Houston in 1982, he was on the faculty of Harvard University for 12 years, where he held appointments at Harvard Medical School, Harvard College, and the Massachusetts General Hospital.
Of his more than 120 books and essays, he is sole author of over 100 publications. He has addressed almost 300 national and international forums and institutions.
Dr. Reiser has been at the forefront in creating four significant and diverse fields of health care.
Medical Ethics:
He co-developed its first dedicated research and teaching program (The Harvard Interfaculty Program in Medical Ethics, 1970) and its first anthology of original documents that became a basic text of the field (Ethics in Medicine, 1977); co-developed the first course on scientific ethics in biology and medicine (The University of Texas-Houston, 1985) and its first textbook (The Ethical Dimensions of the Biological Sciences, 1993).
Technology Assessment:
He wrote the first comprehensive account of how technologies are invented and diffused in medicine (Medicine and the Reign of Technology, 1978; co-founded and continues to edit the field's first and now leading journal (The International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care, 1985).
Institutional Values and Governance:
He co-developed the first conference on the role of values in governing health care organizations (The University of Texas-Houston, 1990) and the first book in the field (Humane Health Care Organizations, 1991).
He originated the use of the case round to explore institutional policies and decisions in health care ("Administrative Case Rounds," JAMA, 1993); and wrote the first article to systematically describe the use of ethical principles to govern health care institutions ("The Ethical Life of Health Care Organizations," Hastings Center Report, 1995).
A major component of his work at UT-Houston is the application of case rounds and values to institutional problems and challenges.
Medicine-Public Health Engagement:
He co-founded the Medicine/Public Health Initiative (1994), a movement involving the national leadership of both fields and dedicated to creating an enduring partnership between them to improve the nation's health. From 1994-98, he was the National Coordinator of the Initiative.
This entailed an extensive effort to formulate the goals and policies of the Initiative and to be in constant touch with the national leaders of the almost 20 organizations in the Initiative.
He was also the principal organizer for the Initiative of the country's first National Congress of Medicine and Public Health (Chicago, 1996), which brought together some 400 leaders of the two disciplines from all 50 states ("Medicine and Public Health: Pursuing a Common Destiny," JAMA, 1996; "Topics for Our Times: The Medicine/Public Health Initiative," American Journal of Public Health, 1997).
The Initiative is widely regarded as a landmark movement in American health care.
See his most recent research and publications.
Contact information: stanley.j.reiser@uth.tmc.edu
