Email
kristen.kostick@bcm.edu
Positions
- Assistant Professor
-
Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, TX US
Professional Interests
-
medical anthropology, cultural and psychosocial factors affecting disease status and prevention/recovery,
-
cognition, emotion and decision-making
-
HIV/AIDS and drug abuse prevention, sociocultural impacts on mental health and illness
Professional Statement
Kristin Kostick is a medical anthropologist whose research focuses on ethical, social and cultural factors related to emerging bio- and neurotechnologies. Her recent publications address a range of ethical issues in the field, including concerns related to return of individual results to participants in psychiatric genetics research, ethical and social concerns about the increasing use of direct-to-consumer neurotechnologies, and a examination of sociocultural values driving the “longevity movement” and its associated technologies. Her other recent work centers on medical decision-making about Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) treatment for advanced heart-failure, and involves implementation and dissemination (D&I) and of a patient decision aid for LVAD, including translation of decision making and risk prediction tools into clinical practice. She has also recently published on patient versus caregiver perspectives on consciousness and its role in decision-making about continued care for individuals who are minimally conscious. Her other recent and former research has focused on the role of socioeconomic status in sexual risk and drug use.