The John J. Lynch, MD Center for Ethics: MedStar Washington Hospital Center

Clinical Ethics Consultation Service

The Ethics Consult Service of the John J. Lynch, MD Center is a free, confidential advisory service designed to assist patients, families, and healthcare professionals in addressing ethical challenges at MedStar Washington Hospital Center, MedStar Union Memorial Hospital, and MedStar Good Samaritan Hospital.

Ethical questions may arise in a variety of circumstances, including when a patient’s ability to make decisions for themselves is limited and when there is disagreement or uncertainty about which treatment options are appropriate. Anyone may request an ethics consultation.

To request an ethics consultation, call the page operator at MedStar Washington Hospital Center at 202-877-7000 and request the Ethics Consult Service or page us at 202-801-1005 and enter a callback number after the beep. The Ethics Consult Service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Members

Christian Carrozzo, PhD (c) is head of bioethics education, Managing Editor of the Journal of Hospital Ethics, and the founder of the Program for Neuroethics & Clinical Consciousness (PNCC) at the John J. Lynch, MD Center for Ethics. Carrozzo is a Doctoral Candidate with the Department of Philosophy at the University at Albany, State University of New York, and was named Distinguished Alumnus in Philosophy by the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at George Mason University, where he now teaches. He has also served as adjunct faculty for the Department of Philosophy at The George Washington University and the Department of Philosophy and Religion at American University. Carrozzo has published over a dozen peer-reviewed articles in the area of neuroethics and broader neurophilosophy and philosophy of mind. His current projects include the development of an edited volume alongside Elspeth Cameron Ritchie for Oxford University Press devoted to medical and philosophical perspectives surrounding decisional capacity. In addition, Carrozzo serves as reviewer for the U.S. Department of Defense's Traumatic Brain Injury and Psychological Health Research Program (TBIPHRP) at General Dynamics. His current research regards the cognitive science of introspection and the phenomenal properties of experience that might serve as epistemic justification for the formation of non-conceptual beliefs.

Evan DeRenzo, PhD is Ethicist & Editor Emeritus with the John J. Lynch MD Center for Ethics at MedStar Washington Hospital Center, Washington, D.C. She received her PhD in Human Development, specializing in Gerontology, from the University of Maryland and was the first Senior Staff Fellow in bioethics at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She is retired adjunct faculty for The Johns Hopkins University, Graduate Program in Biotechnology. She is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Hospital Ethics, was the originating chairperson of the Organizational Ethics Subcommittee of the hospital’s Ethics Committee and is the author of Writing Clinical Research Protocols: Ethical Considerations (2nd Ed.) with Joel Moss, NIH and their additional co-author, Eric Singer, Rutgers University. Formerly Assistant Director, Evan has retired from her senior consultative role to devote more time to her writing projects, and her other long-term projects, such as expanding access to medical respite care for those experiencing homelessness prior to hospitalization.

Nikki Glover is Administrative Coordinator of the John J. Lynch, MD Center for Ethics. She is responsible for the management and administrative flow of the Center in support of all related projects and programming while incorporating the organization’s mission and values.

Patrick D. Herron, DBe, HEC-C is a Clinical Ethicist at the John J. Lynch, MD Center for Ethics. In addition to clinical ethics consultation work, he is a member of MedStar’s Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity Council and Washington Hospital Center’s Healthcare Equality Committee. His scholarly interests include LGBTQ+ health education and advocacy; inter-professionalism education; and social media use among health professionals. Dr. Herron is an Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor of Family & Social Medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine where he previously served as Director of Bioethics Education. He completed his Doctor of Bioethics at Loyola University Chicago and Master of Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He co-chairs the Ethics and Humanities Educators in the Health Professions and Residency Training Affinity Group for the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities. Dr. Herron also serves on the Advisory Board for Medical Student Pride Alliance and is a former member of the Board of Directors for the Academy for Professionalism in Health Care.

Benjamin Krohmal, JD, HEC-C is Director of the John J. Lynch, MD Center for Ethics and is responsible for the daily operations and management of the Center. Krohmal conducts scholarly research in bioethics and serves as a clinical ethics consultant. He is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Georgetown University School of Medicine. Before joining MedStar, Krohmal spent nearly a decade as a senior attorney at a multinational firm, where he specialized in anti-corruption compliance and enforcement and settled the largest international corruption case in the healthcare industry. His scholarship addresses topics including COVID-19, physician aid-in-dying, surrogate decision-making, “dual use” research, international research ethics, and just access to healthcare. Krohmal completed a fellowship in the Bioethics Department at the National Institutes of Health, graduated from Boston College Law School (Cum Laude and Order of the Coif) and received a BA in biology and philosophy from the University of Virginia (Highest Honors and Phi Beta Kappa). Krohmal is barred in Washington, D.C., and in New York.

Susannah “Suzy” Lee, JD, MPH, HEC-C is a Clinical Ethicist at the John J. Lynch, MD Center for Ethics. In addition to clinical ethics consultation work, she co-chairs the Center’s subcommittee on policy, engages in bioethics research and education, and conducts quality improvement projects. Her scholarship addresses patients’ rights, advance care planning, and using the law to as a tool to promote both access to and quality in health care services. She completed a Clinical Ethics Fellowship at Wellstar Health System in Atlanta, GA. She received her JD from the University of Virginia School of Law, her MPH in Health Policy from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and her BA in history from the University of Richmond. She completed a Legal and Administrative Fellowship at Ochsner Health System in New Orleans, LA. She is barred in the District of Columbia.

Nina Roesner, JD, HEC-C is a Clinical Ethicist at the John J. Lynch, MD Center for Ethics. She serves as a clinical ethics consultant for MedStar Union Memorial and MedStar Good Samaritan hospitals in Baltimore, MD and engages in bioethics research. Her current scholarly work is focused on reproductive ethics and law in relation to disability, genomics, and emerging technologies. Prior to joining MedStar, she received her BA in economics from Brown University (Magna Cum Laude) and her JD from Harvard Law School and completed a post-doctoral fellowship with the National Institutes of Health Department of Bioethics. Roesner is barred in Maryland.

Lucia D. Wocial, PhD, FAAN, RN, HEC-C is Senior Clinical Ethicist at the John J. Lynch, MD Center for Ethics. Dr. Wocial has been a registered nurse since 1985. Her clinical background is neonatal intensive care, both as a nurse and as a neonatal Clinical Nurse Specialist. Her current research focuses on moral distress of professional caregivers, with a particular interest on clinicians who practice in the in-patient setting. Prior to joining the Lynch Center, she served as the nurse ethicist and remains a senior affiliate faculty at the Charles Warren Fairbanks Center for Medical Ethics at Indiana University Health) in Indianapolis, Indiana and as an adjunct assistant professor for the Indiana University School of Nursing in Indianapolis. She is a certified Healthcare Ethics Consultant and serves on the Commission for Healthcare Clinical Ethics Consultation Certification. She is a senior associate faculty for Vital Talk.

John “Jack” Lynch, MD (1928-2016) founded the Center for Ethics, which developed from the work of the hospital’s ethics committee, also first convened by Dr. Lynch in 1982. Dr. Lynch was Associate Director of the Washington Cancer Institute and held the positions of Medical Director for the Center for Ethics, Ethics Committee Chair, and Medical Editor to the Journal of Hospital Ethics throughout his over 50 years at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. Dr. Lynch was a pioneer in clinical bioethics, served on countless committees, and published dozens of articles on medical oncology and physician ethics. Dr. Lynch argued for the common sense view that an ethical regard for patients, families, and one’s fellow clinical providers was a natural extension of virtuous medical practice. In furthering this philosophy, the Moral Courage Awards were established in his name in 2010. The John J. Lynch, MD Moral Courage Awards is a yearly hospital program designed to recognize associates and staff at MedStar Washington Hospital Center who have exhibited the virtue of courage while confronted with ethically challenging clinical circumstances. The Center for Ethics was named after Dr. Lynch on December 9th, 2016.

Affiliate

Michael Pottash, MD, MPH is a physician of palliative medicine at MedStar Washington Hospital Center and associate professor of clinical medicine at Georgetown University School of Medicine. He completed fellowships in palliative medicine and clinical ethics at North Shore University Hospital and a certificate program in bioethics at Hofstra University School of Law. He trained in primary care internal medicine at Jacobi Medical Center at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine after completing medical school at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology’s Faculty of Medicine. Prior to medical school, he completed a master’s in public health at Boston University School of Public Health. Dr Pottash serves his community as vice chair of the ethics committee at MedStar Washington Hospital Center, vice chair of the Georgetown-Howard Universities Center for Clinical and Translational Science Institutional Review Board, and as a medical editor of the Journal for Hospital Ethics at the John J Lynch, MD Center for Ethics.

Matthew P. Schreiber, MD, MHS, FCCP chairs the MedStar Washington Hospital Center Bioethics Committee and has served MedStar Health through policy development and participation in various other efforts (Ethics Consultation Sub-Committee, Learning From Every Death Committee, Organ, Eye, and Tissue Donation Committee, Dying with Dignity Steering Committee) . As a practicing critical care physician, Dr. Schreiber maintains an academic interest in patient outcomes resulting in national presentations and peer-reviewed publications. He is well known to the MedStar Health system having completed both his residency in Internal Medicine and fellowship in Pulmonary Disease / Critical Care Medicine within the MedStar Washington Hospital Center / Georgetown University Hospital programs. Dr. Schreiber sums up his professional mantra by asking, “what can we do today to make tomorrow better for our patients?”