OU College of Medicine Honors Renowned Bioethicist

The OU College of Medicine has presented the Patricia Price Browne Prize in Biomedical Ethics to Ezekiel J. Emanuel, M.D., Ph.D., Vice Provost for Global Initiatives and the Diane v.S. Levy and Robert M. Levy University Professor at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine.

The Department of Pediatrics in the OU College of Medicine presents the award every two years to a person who demonstrates high standards in the medical or professional ethics fields. The prize is named for an Oklahoma champion of women’s and children’s health, the late Patricia Price Browne. The honor comes with a $10,000 award. During his time on campus to accept the award, Emanuel gave a lecture titled, “Allocating Scarce Medical Resources: Lessons from COVID.”

Emanuel is an oncologist and world leader in health policy and bioethics. He is a special advisor to the director general of the World Health Organization, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, and member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He was the founding chair of the Department of Bioethics at the National Institutes of Health and held that position until August 2011. From 2009 to 2011, he served as a special advisor on health policy to the director of the Office of Management and Budget and National Economic Council. In this role, he was instrumental in drafting the Affordable Care Act. Emanuel also served on the Biden-Harris Transition Covid Advisory Board.

Emanuel is the most widely cited bioethicist in history. He has over 350 publications and has written or edited 15 books. His recent publications include the books “Which Country Has the World’s Best Health Care?” (2020), “Prescription for the Future” (2017), “Reinventing American Health Care: How the Affordable Care Act Will Improve our Terribly Complex, Blatantly Unjust, Outrageously Expensive, Grossly Inefficient, Error Prone System” (2014) and “Brothers Emanuel: A Memoir of an American Family” (2013). In 2008, he published “Healthcare, Guaranteed: A Simple, Secure Solution for America,” which included his own recommendations for healthcare reform.

Emanuel is a graduate of Amherst College. He holds a master of science degree from Oxford University in biochemistry and received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School and his doctorate in political philosophy from Harvard University.