D. Micah Hester
Chair/Professor
Also affiliated: Arkansas Children's Hospital (2006–2026); Mercer University (2001–2004); Vanderbilt University (1998); University of Arkansas Medical Center (2009–2025); Mercer University Health Sciences Center (2001–2004); University of Nebraska Medical Center (2007–2008)
Department Chairs, College of Medicine
Research Areas
Biomedical Subjects
Links
Biography and Research Information
OverviewAI-generated summary
D. Micah Hester's research and scholarship focus on bioethics, with particular attention to ethical considerations in medical research and clinical practice. He investigates issues surrounding patient-provider relationships, end-of-life care, and pediatric ethics. A significant area of his work addresses transparency in research consent processes, including the challenges posed by "therapeutic misconception," where potential participants may prioritize perceived therapeutic benefits over the risks and nature of research participation.
Hester also examines assent in pediatric research protocols and has extensive experience in Institutional Review Board (IRB) service, spanning over two decades. He provides research ethics consultations and contributes to discussions on ethical issues that arise from protocol development through consent processes and IRB considerations. His scholarly metrics include an h-index of 12, with 145 total publications and 759 citations. He has collaborated with researchers such as Lauren Bunch and Simon Chung at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
Research Overview
I am the Chair of the Department of Medical Humanities & Bioethics and a clinical and research ethicist here at UAMS since 2004. I have a PhD in philosophy from Vanderbilt University. My scholarly work has been in the areas of patient-provider relationships, end-of-life issues, pediatric ethics, and ethics education. I am deeply concerned by issues of transparency in consent processes for research, including challenges posed by what has been called "therapeutic misconception"--when would-be participant are focused on therapeutic outcomes, and blind to the fact that they are agreeing to be research subjects. I have done work in assent in pediatric research protocols, as well. I also have over two decades of IRB service experience, and provide research ethics consultations, as requested. I am available to discuss ethical issues that are raised by specific research, and thereby to help think through and monitor ethical challenges in research, from protocol development to consent issues to IRB considerations.
Metrics
- h-index: 12
- Publications: 123
- Citations: 748
Positions
-
Chair/Professor 2004–presentUniversity of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Department Chairs, College of Medicine Institutional directory
Selected Publications
-
Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Ethics (2026)
-
Of Course Reasons Matter. The Question is How (2025)
-
A Potential Clinical Ethicist Weighs in with Insights and Concerns Form the Findings of Fox and Wasserman (2025)
-
Oversight for First-in-Human Surgical Procedures (2025)
-
Partial waiver of consent to overcome translational science barriers in neonatal clinical research (2025)
-
Non-Beneficial or Harmful: Furthering the Futility Discussion (2025)
-
Achieving Live Birth is Not an Endpoint but a Steppingstone (2024)
-
Equitable Access of Delandistrogene Moxeparvovec for Patients With Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy: A Call for Discussion (2024)
-
Healthcare Privacy in an Electronic Data Age (2024)
-
Careful Considerations for Midcrisis Consent to and Refusal of Blood Products (2024)
-
Careful Considerations for Midcrisis Consent to and Refusal of Blood Products (2023)
-
Ethics at the Edges: Normative Considerations When Spheres of Morality Overlap (2023)
-
Consent and Assent in Pediatric Research (2023)
-
Pediatric Decision Making: Consensus Recommendations (2023)
-
Membership and Structure of Institutional Bioethics Committees (2023)
Grants & Funding
As listed on this researcher's institutional profile.
- Partnership for Implementation of Evidence-Based Practices in Rural Primary Care NIH Co-Investigator
- Arkansas Center for Clinical and Translational Research NIH Co-Investigator
- 1/6 HBCD Prenatal Experiences and Longitudinal Development (PRELUDE) Consortium NIH Co-Investigator
- Arkansas Center for Clinical & Translational Research NIH/National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences Co-Investigator
Collaboration Network
Top Collaborators
- Gatekeeping and Personal Values: Misuses of Professional Roles
- Pardon My Asking: What's New?
- Introduction
- Brief Introduction to Ethics and Ethical Theory
- Nonadherence to Medications
Showing 5 of 8 shared publications
- Ventilator Triage Policies During the COVID-19 Pandemic at U.S. Hospitals Associated With Members of the Association of Bioethics Program Directors
- Pediatric Decision Making: Consensus Recommendations
- The OHRP and SUPPORT
- Agreed: The Harm Principle Cannot Replace the Best Interest Standard … but the Best Interest Standard Cannot Replace The Harm Principle Either
- Of Course Reasons Matter. The Question is How
Showing 5 of 6 shared publications
- First Do No Harm: Ethical Concerns of Health Researchers That Discourage the Sharing of Results With Research Participants
- Comparison Is Not a Zero-Sum Game: Exploring Advanced Measures of Healthcare Ethics Consultation
- Closure But No Cigar
- Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Ethics
- Agreed: The Harm Principle Cannot Replace the Best Interest Standard … but the Best Interest Standard Cannot Replace The Harm Principle Either
- The Centrality of Relational Autonomy and Compassion Fatigue in the COVID-19 Era
- When a Mother Changes Her Mind About a DNR
- Moral Hazards Over Narrative Methods in Pediatrics? Not Worth the Risk
- Ventilator Triage Policies During the COVID-19 Pandemic at U.S. Hospitals Associated With Members of the Association of Bioethics Program Directors
- Pediatric Decision Making: Consensus Recommendations
- The OHRP and SUPPORT
- First Do No Harm: Ethical Concerns of Health Researchers That Discourage the Sharing of Results With Research Participants
- Regulating Decisions for Incapacitated Pregnant Women
- Closure But No Cigar
- Pediatric Decision Making: Consensus Recommendations
- “Medical Benefit” and Therapeutic Misconception: The Ethical Conundrum of Phase 1 Pediatric Oncology Research
- Achieving Live Birth is Not an Endpoint but a Steppingstone
- The OHRP and SUPPORT
- Pediatricians' Experience with Clinical Ethics Consultation: A National Survey
- Age and the Allocation of Organs for Transplantation: A Case Study
- Improving Medicine through Research and the Constitutive Nature of Altruism
- Ventilator Triage Policies During the COVID-19 Pandemic at U.S. Hospitals Associated With Members of the Association of Bioethics Program Directors
- The OHRP and SUPPORT
- Pediatric Decision Making: Consensus Recommendations
- The OHRP and SUPPORT
- Pediatric Decision Making: Consensus Recommendations
- Parents Refusing Dialysis for a 3-Month-Old With Renal Failure
- Parents Refusing Dialysis for a 3-Month-Old With Renal Failure
- When a Mother Changes Her Mind About a DNR
- United States Pediatric Ethics Consult Service Requests: Why, Who, and Sufficient?
- United States Pediatric Ethics Consult Service Requests: Why, Who, and Sufficient?
- Regulating Decisions for Incapacitated Pregnant Women
- Posthumous HIV Disclosure and Relational Rupture
Similar Researchers
Based on overlapping research topics