Allison M. McCarthy, Ph.D.

Allison M. McCarthy, Ph.D. is Core Faculty with the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and Affiliated Faculty with the Department of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University. She joined the faculty at Vanderbilt in August of 2021 after completing a PhD in philosophy at The Ohio State University in 2018 and a postdoctoral fellowship in clinical ethics at UCLA in 2021.

Dr. McCarthy’s research examines the normative ideal of shared medical decision-making and the prospects and challenges in its application for special patient populations. Her recent work focuses on shared decision-making in obstetric care and addressing the distinctive ethical complexity of incorporating the maternal-fetal dyad into patient-centered shared decision-making. She has also published on supported decision-making for patients with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and is currently examining surrogate decision-making for hospitalized incarcerated patients.

Dr. McCarthy teaches healthcare ethics across Vanderbilt, working extensively with medical and nursing students, as well as trainees across multiple residency and fellowship programs. She is co-director of the Graduate Medical Education Certificate in Biomedical Ethics and course director for the Advanced Clinical Experience in Medical Ethics for medical students in the Immersion Phase. In addition, she provides mentorship to philosophy PhD candidates pursuing work in biomedical ethics and clinical ethics.

Dr. McCarthy also is one of two full-time members of the Clinical Ethics Consultation Service for Vanderbilt University Medical Center, which provides 24/7 consultation on ethical questions in patient care for all inpatient and outpatient settings across VUMC and the Vanderbilt Health Affiliated Network, and is heavily involved in developing and revising policy on ethical issues throughout the organization.