Joseph B. Fanning, Ph.D.

Joseph B. Fanning, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine and Public Health within the Department of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He serves as associate director of the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society, director of Clinical Ethics Consultation Service and co-chair of the VUMC Ethics Committee. 

Dr. Fanning received master’s degrees from Princeton Seminary, earned his PhD from Vanderbilt University, and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at VUMC. His research has focused on the role of communication and interpersonal skills in the development of therapeutic relationships across clinical contexts. His book, “Normative and Pragmatic Dimensions of Genetic Counseling” (Springer International, 2016), explores the ethical complexities of how to communicate responsibly about genetics in a therapeutic encounter. In “What Patients Teach: The Everyday Ethics of Healthcare” (Oxford University Press, Fall 2013) 

Dr. Fanning and his co-authors share what they learned from 55 patient interviews that aimed to understand how strong therapeutic relationships with clinicians are developed and sustained. His current scholarship focuses on the ethical complexities of treating incapacitated patients over their objection in acute care settings.

Dr. Fanning teaches healthcare ethics at Vanderbilt, working with students in the schools of medicine and nursing, as well as with trainees across multiple residency and fellowship programs. He is the lead instructor for undergraduate course in the College of Arts and Science titled “Clinical Ethics in Practice” and co-teaches a graduate course, “Ethics in Healthcare: Theological and Philosophical Perspectives.”

For more about his work, visit Clinical Ethics Consults.