An Introduction to CBSSM

The Center for Bioethics and Social Sciences in Medicine (CBSSM) was established in July 2010 at the University of Michigan Medical School through the merger of the Bioethics Program with the Center for Behavioral and Decision Sciences in Medicine (CBDSM).  The Bioethics Program and CBDSM were successful entities primarily focused on research.  The new CBSSM will bring together parties across campus to create a comprehensive entity that can generate new opportunities that had not been previously possible. 


Under the joint sponsorship of the University of Michigan Medical School and the Ann Arbor VA Health Services Research and Development, CBSSM is a home for researchers with multiple perspectives on health decision making and behavior and bioethics.

Our team includes
  • social and cognitive psychologists
  • behavioral economists
  • clinicians from many specialties
  • bioethicists
  • decision scientists
  • survey methodologists
  • public health researchers
 

A key goal of CBSSM is training the next generation of interdisciplinary researchers, offering support to junior investigators, especially through our Pre-Doctoral and Post-Doctoral Fellows Program, led by Angela Fagerlin, PhD.

The Internet Survey Lab at CBSSM, directed by Brian Zikmund-Fisher, PhD, facilitates the programming of complex experimental designs, using the graphical and interactive capabilities of the Internet.

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At CBSSM, we perform the basic and applied scientific research that will improve health care policy and practice, to benefit patients and their families, health care providers, third-party payers, policy makers, and the general public. In our Decision of the Month web feature, we turn a recent research finding into an interactive decision that a patient or a policy maker might face. Read, decide, click--and see how your answers compare with those collected in national research surveys.

Thank you for visiting our website! Learn more about CBSSM at one of our Seminars, offered twice monthly (see Seminar page for schedule) September through June, at the North Ingalls Building on the main campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, or drop in on one of our topic-focused Research Groups. 

Please contact us with any questions you may have.