ASCRS names medical ethicist as public trustee to governing board

FAIRFAX, Va. - The American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery has appointed John Banja, PhD, a medical ethicist, to serve as the first public trustee to the governing board, according to a news release.

The position of public trustee is designed to provide input on patient-related issues and regulatory policy.

"The advance of medical technologies and fundamental changes in the nation's health care system are posing complex new challenges to doctors as they strive to provide better care to patients," Edward J. Holland, MD, ASCRS president, said in the release. "As a public trustee to the governing board, and someone who is not a surgeon, he can view patients' interests from a perspective different from that of a physician. In addition, his expertise is in the field of medical ethics, which also offers an invaluable resource when developing policy on clinical questions and in forming our positions on legislative and regulatory affairs."

Dr. Banja has taught and lectured on medical ethics, authored or co-authored more than 150 publications, and given more than 800 presentations at conferences. He is associate editor of AJOB Neuroscience, the leading neuroethics journal.

"Ethicists and public policy analysts have been commenting on the 'marketplace' evolution of American health care for three decades, and ophthalmology, especially as practiced by cataract and refractive surgeons, is a remarkable example of marketplace medicine," Dr. Banja said in the release.

Dr. Banja is a professor in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine and a medical ethicist at the Center for Ethics at Emory University, Atlanta. He is also director of the Section on Ethics for the Atlanta Clinical and Translational Science Institute at Emory.