Oliver Schirokauer is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Bioethics. His position is jointly supported by the Department of Bioethics and by Medical Education.
Dr. Schirokauer oversees the bioethics curriculum for the School of Medicine’s University Program (four-year Doctor of Medicine). He also co-directs and teaches in the preclinical seminars course for the students in the University Program. This course spans two years and consists of 50 sessions focused on topics related to the patient-provider relationship, communication, the patient experience, ethics, health equity, and professional identity.
Dr. Schirokauer is founder and director of the Medical Facilitation Program. Medical Facilitation is a clinical service for patients adjusting to major illness that provides support related to communication, information processing, and decision making. The program operates at the MetroHealth System and is housed in MetroHealth’s Center for Biomedical Ethics.
Teaching Information
Teaching Schedule
Current Educational Initiatives:
- Medical Facilitation Education Pilot: 8-week course in which students from the nursing, physician assistant, and MD programs participate in the provision of Medical Facilitation services under faculty supervision. Students also attend a weekly didactic seminar in which they consider a wide range of topics related to Medical Facilitation. (Launch date: February 2024)
- Health Equity Curriculum Expansion: Ongoing project implemented in collaboration with faculty in the Department of Bioethics and in Medical Education, to increase the presence of material related to historical trauma, systemic inequity, bias, global health, and advocacy in the M1/M2 curriculum
- Ethics Debrief Program: Effort to increase the opportunities for clerkship students to process ethically challenging experiences. Sessions are currently offered as part of the clerkship didactics in Core 1 (Internal and Family Medicine) at MetroHealth and Core 2 (Pediatrics and Ob/Gyn) at University Hospitals.
- Reflective Practice Pilot: M1 program designed in collaboration with faculty in Medical Education, to support spontaneous and interactive written reflection. (Launch date: January 2024)
Publications
Presentations
Selected Recent Presentations
Medical Students in the Hospital: Moral Transformation of One Sort or Another, Bioethics@Noon Grand Rounds, MetroHealth System, 2023 (remote), with M. Lapinski
Incarceration and Hospitalization, American Society for Bioethics and Humanities Conference, Portland, OR, 2022, M.L. Gerrek, O. Schirokauer (presenter)
Reframing Uncertainty for Medical Trainees, poster, Academy for Professionalism in Health Care Conference, Cleveland, OH, 2023
To See or Not To See the Patient, debate, American Society for Bioethics and Humanities Conference, Baltimore, MD, 2023, L. Ferrari, M.L Gerrek, S. Radwany, O. Schirokauer (moderator)