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Richard L. O'Brien, MD, FACP
University Professor, Center for Health Policy & Ethics
MD, 1960, Creighton University
MS, 1958, Creighton University
Dr. Richard O'Brien
Creighton University Medical Center
Center for Health Policy and Ethics, 209
2500 California Plaza
Omaha, NE 68178
(402) 280.4088 tel
(402) 280.5735 fax
rlo@creighton.edu
Biography
Dr. Richard O'Brien has been a member of the Center for Health Policy and Ethics since 1999. Prior to that he was Dean of the Creighton University School of Medicine from 1982-1992 and Vice President for Health Sciences from 1984-1999. He came to Creighton from the University of Southern California where he was a faculty member from 1966-1982, holding the rank of professor and, at the time of his leaving, served as Director of the Kenneth Norris Jr. Cancer Center and Research Hospital.
After graduating from medical school, he was an intern and resident in internal medicine on the 1st (Columbia University) Medical Division at Bellevue Hospital in New York, and a post-doctoral fellow at the Enzyme Institute of the University of Wisconsin. During his military service in the U.S. Army, he was assistant chief of the Department of Molecular Biology of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Washington, D.C. He was a Special Fellow of the National Cancer Institute, 1967-1969. He was also a Visiting Professor of Molecular Biology at l’Université de Genève in Switzerland, 1973-1974.
Dr. O'Brien has served on numerous professional committees. These include: the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, of which he was the American Association of Medical Colleges designated co-chair for five years, 1989-1993; chair of the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) Evaluation Panel that devised the new MCAT that was introduced in 1991; several scientific review committees of the National Institutes of Health and the American Cancer Society (ACS), including chairing the National Cancer Institute Cancer Center Support Grant Review Committee and the Institutional Research Grant Committee of the ACS. He has served on the boards of directors of many professional and public organizations including the American Association of Cancer Institutes, American Association of Academic Health Centers, Opera Omaha and the Opera Omaha Foundation. He is a member of Alpha Omega Alpha, honorary medical society, and has received numerous professional awards.
Dr. O'Brien's current scholarly interests include the roles of trust and fidelity in health care, research ethics, research policy development, health disparities, and anatomic and physiologic metaphors. He has many publications in professional journals and chapters in books addressing subjects ranging from molecular and cellular biology to the modern paradigm of medical science and practice.
Dr. O'Brien states, "My career, and my intellectual development, have followed a trajectory of steadily increasing scope, from the deep reductionism of enzyme chemistry and molecular biology to the synthetic examination of human systems and behavior. Though sometimes put in the background by heavy academic administrative and leadership responsibilities, the path has continued unbroken and in the same direction. I am particularly proud of graduate and medical students of mine who are following this same trajectory of growth.
Snapshot
View of Snapshot of Dr. O'Brien's work:
Cultural Competence of Clinical Investigators [PDF]
A Two-Sector Solution to America’s Health System Problems [PDF]
What does the term fiduciary mean when applied to health care? [PDF]