SUMMARY
Michelle McGowan, Ph.D., is an empirical bioethicist whose research explores ethical and social implications of the rapid increase in emerging health technologies and policies.
Combining a range of qualitative and normative methods, Dr. McGowan's approach to bioethics scholarship focuses on addressing systemic inequalities in access, uptake and delivery of healthcare and health technologies.
Dr. McGowan studies implications of the uneven distribution of benefits and burdens of digital, reproductive and genetic healthcare resources. She also studies gender and justice implications of uneven use of health technologies. In addition, she studies structural and resource-related health disparities of technological innovation in healthcare.
Focus areas
- Exploring ethical and logistical implications of the expanding use of digital technologies and decentralized approaches when enrolling participants who have historically been underrepresented in clinical research and clinical trials, such as children and pregnant people.
- Understanding how teenagers and parents feel about using digital technologies and shared decision-making approaches to engage young people in learning their personal genomic information in the context of research.
- Examining ethical and social implications of federal, state and institutional reproductive healthcare and technology policies for digital innovation and the equitable distribution of comprehensive reproductive healthcare.
- Anticipating ethical, regulatory and social issues in applying sensing technologies, such as wearables and mobile devices, in healthcare and biomedical research contexts.
- Incorporating viewpoints of patients, consumers, healthcare professionals and researchers into debates about personalized and precision medicine, big data research initiatives, and direct-to-consumer personal genomic testing.
Significance to patient care
Dr. McGowan's research focuses on ensuring that the values of patients and healthcare professionals related to digital, reproductive and genetic technologies are reflected in federal, state, professional society and institutional policies and practices.
Her empirical research has informed guidelines of medical professional societies for oocyte donation, reproductive carrier screening, nonmedical sex selection and pediatric genetic testing. Dr. McGowan contributes regularly to discussions about institutional and professional society guidelines for incorporating novel technologies into healthcare practices.
Professional highlights
- Site principal investigator and project leader, Abortion Clinic Closures and Care Churn project, Ohio Policy Evaluation Network, 2018-present.
- Multiple principal investigator, Engaging Adolescents in Decisions About Return of Genomic Research Results, National Human Genome Research Institute, 2019-2024.
- Integrating Special Populations Award, Center for Clinical and Translational Science and Training, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and University of Cincinnati, 2022.
- Member, Reproductive Freedom, Access and Justice Task Force, National Society of Genetic Counselors, 2021-2022.
- Member, Committee on Ethics, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, 2016-2022.
- Ad hoc committee member, Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, 2021.
- Award, Graduate Student Stipend and Research Cost Program for Faculty-Student Collaboration, University Research Council, University of Cincinnati, 2021.
- Publication award, Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem (TOME), Ohio Under COVID: Lessons from America's Heartland in Crisis, 2021.
- Associate editor, Human Reproduction, 2012-2013.