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THOMAS MCCORMICK, DMin
Lecturer Emeritus

Office: A-204Q Health Sciences Building
Phone: (206) 616-1820
Email: mccormic@u.washington.edu

Bio | Recent Publications | Recent Talks | Honors, Awards, Grants | Courses | Curriculum Vita (PDF)

Dr. Thomas R. McCormick joined the faculty at the University of Washington's School of Medicine in 1974 to develop a program in biomedical ethics. He teaches a variety of elective courses in bioethics and is responsible for the ethics component in the required core curriculum. In the clinical context, Dr. McCormick instituted a twice monthly ethics conference in the level three NICU at University Hospital. He formerly served on the ethics advisory board for the in vitro fertilization program in reproductive medicine and the cardiac transplant program at UHMC. Dr. McCormick is an ethics consultant for Harborview Medical Center, one of the UW's major teaching hospitals, and served as a founding member of the ethics committee. He also serves as ethics consultant for research at the Fred Hutchinson Research Center and for Hospice of Seattle.
Dr. McCormick recently resigned as Director of Counseling for the School of Medicine at the University of Washington, a position he held from 1985-2001. Since 2001, McCormick has served as adjunct professor in bioethics at the School of Medicine, Midwestern University, Glendale Branch, Glendale, Arizona.

Dr. McCormick received his Doctoral degree in Ethics from Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas. In 1972-1973 he was a postdoctoral fellow in medical ethics at the Texas Medical Center, Houston, Texas. In 1980, Spring semester, he was a postdoctoral fellow in clinical ethics at the University of Tennessee Medical Center, Memphis, Tennessee.

McCormick has authored a number of articles in the field of medical ethics. Recent publications include: "Patient Perspectives on Dying and on the Care of Dying Patients," in the Western Journal of Medicine, September 1995; "When Life Support is Questioned Early in the Care of Patients with Cervical-Level Quadriplegia," in the New England Journal of Medicine, with Patterson et al, in 1993. McCormick has also contributed a chapter entitled, "Ethical Issues in Caring for the Gerontological Patient" for the nursing text from Lippincott as well as a chapter entitled, "The Terminal Phase of Illness" in a Medical-Surgical Nursing Text by Lippincott. Dr. McCormick has produced a number of teaching videotapes including a series on "Death and Dying" with Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross through the School of Medicine, a series on "Medical Ethics" published by Everett Community College, and a series entitled, "Coping with Serious Illness, Death, and Grief," published by the University of Washington Press. His October, 1993 article in ANNA Journal addresses "Ethical Issues in the Care of Patients in End Stage Renal Disease." Dr. McCormick had an invited chapter entitled BIOETICA published by: UTEP Publishing, Torino, Italy in 1995.

Dr. McCormick has lectured widely in the United States and also in Canada, Italy, Japan and Taiwan. He is a member of the American Society for Bioethics & Humanities (ASBH). He serves on a number of university committees and agency boards, is on the medical advisory board for Cancer Lifeline, is the ethics advisor to Hospice of Seattle, and is a founding board member for the Women’s Bioethics Project in Seattle. He has served as consultant to a number of hospitals, nursing homes and retirement centers in the Northwest and assisted in setting up and training hospital ethics committees.

His current research interests include an examination of transcultural aspects in ethical decision making, including cultural variances in the relationship between patients and health care providers. Dr. McCormick is also interested in improving the quality of education in "death and dying" in medical schools and was recently appointed to a National Task Force investigating this topic, representing the UW School of Medicine on a grant from the Greenwall Foundation managed by Choice in Dying, a New York based agency supporting death education. This task force report has been published as: Nelson W, McCormick TR, (et al) "Goals and Strategies for Teaching Death and Dying in Medical Schools," (A consensus statement from eleven participating medical schools), Journal of Palliative Medicine, Volume 3, Number 1, Spring 2000, pp.7-16.

Recent Publications:

  • Santa, LL., Reed, VA, Jernstedt, GC, & McCormick, TR, "Development of medical students' attitudes over the course of medical education" Annals of Behavioral Science and Medical Education, July 2003
  • Syat, BL, Reed, VA, Jernstedt, GC, McCormick, TR, "Gender Differences in the Development of Medical Students' Attitudes and Values Over Time" Annals of Behavioral Science and Medical Education, 2004: 10(1)6-14.

Recent Talks

  • A week-long lecture series in clinical ethics, Kyorin University, Hachioji, Japan, February, 2005
  • ICM II Lecture-Discussion (2 hours) "Ethics in Sexuality ," May 2006
  • Seminar: "Spirituality in Medicine" for Behavioral Medicine, Internal Medicine Residents, Roosevelt Clinic, Seattle, WA, May 2006
  • Lecture: "Ethical Issues with Difficult Patients", Calgary, Canada, May 2006
  • Grand Rounds Presentation, "Ethical Issues in Pediatrics, Best Interest or Least Harm?", Driscoll Children's Hospital, Corpus Christi, TX, June 2006
  • Lecture: "Bioethics: What Health Care Practitioners Need to Know", Driscoll Children's Hospital, Corpus Christi, TX, June 2006
  • Lecture: “When Providing Care Challenges Our Personal Beliefs and Biases ” for the Annual UW School of Nursing Ethics Confersence, Seattle, WA, July 2006
  • Co-Director and Lecturer for MHE's 20th annual Summer Bioethics Seminar, August 2006
  • Lecturer: "The Birth of American Bioethics" and Tour Leader for Visiting Delegation of Medical Students from the Hyogo Medical School, Kyoto, Japan to UW, Seattle, WA, August 2006
  • Grand Rounds Presentation, "Ethical Issues in the Care of a Hospitalized Patient", Valley Medical Center, Seattle, WA, September 2006

Awards, Honors and Grants Received:

  • Co-investigator, "Qualitative Evaluatilon of Computer-based Tutorial (Cultural Sensitivity in End-of-Life Care)" sponsored by Talaria, Inc.
  • A Named Lectureship has been established in honor of Dr. McCormick’s work in bioethics, “The McCormick Lectureship in Science & Religion.” Dr. McCormick gave the inagural lecture: "Contributions of Religion to Bioethics" for this Lectureship.

Courses

  • MHE 511, P-Medical Ethics, UW
  • MHE 523, Biomedical Ethics, UW
  • MHE 512, P-The Human Face of Medicine, UW
  • MHE 518, Spirituality in Medicine, UW
  • GEBE 537 Ethical Challenges of Modern Medicine: A Case Study Approach (Midwestern University, W/S,

 
© 2008, Department of Bioethics & Humanities, University of Washington. Email comments or questions to Webmaster. This page last updated September 10, 2009 .