Scott Kim is a Senior Investigator in the Department of Bioethics, National Institutes of Health.
Dr. Kim combines philosophical, clinical, and empirical research approaches to address a variety of ethical issues. His work in research ethics currently focuses on two issues in pragmatic clinical trials: one, developing ethically acceptable ways of obtaining consent that preserves the ‘pragmatic’ character of the trials; two, providing a rigorous framework for risk-benefit analysis for such trials. He also works on ethical issues in mental health law, such as assessment of decision-making capacity and surrogate consent for incapacitated patients. Finally, he conducts research on euthanasia/assisted suicide as the practice is actually implemented in Belgium and the Netherlands, and its implications for the U.S., Canada and elsewhere. Dr. Kim’s work has been supported by the NIMH, NINDS, NIA, NHGRI, Michael J. Fox Foundation, American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry, and The Greenwall Foundation; it has appeared in New England Journal of Medicine, Nature, JAMA, and other key journals. His book Evaluation of Capacity to Consent to Treatment and Research (Oxford, 2010) was recently translated into Japanese.
Prior to joining the NIH in 2013, Dr. Kim was professor of psychiatry and Co-Director of the Center for Bioethics and Behavioral Sciences in Medicine at the University of Michigan. He remains a loyal Wolverines fan.