Edward Hundert

Biography

  Edward M. Hundert is the Dean for Medical Education and the Daniel D. Federman, M.D. Professor in Residence of Global Health and Social Medicine and Medical Education at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Hundert also serves as Associate Director of the Center for Bioethics at HMS. Over the past 25 years, he has served as President of Case Western Reserve University, Dean of the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, and Associate Dean for Student Affairs at Harvard Medical School. An internationally known scholar, educator, psychiatrist, and ethicist, he has held professorial appointments in psychiatry, medical ethics, cognitive science, and medical humanities. His most recent duties at Harvard before serving as Dean for Medical Education included directing the Academy Fellowship in Medical Education for HMS faculty and the Medical Ethics and Professionalism curriculum for HMS students. Dr. Hundert is a leader in developing innovative curricula and institutional affiliations both in academic medical centers and across all levels of higher education. While Dean of the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, he led the school’s creation of the “Double Helix Curriculum,” a sweeping integration of the basic and clinical sciences across the four-year medical school experience. During his tenure as President of Case Western Reserve, the medical school expanded to create the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, a unique 5-year program dedicated to training future clinical researchers. His work on the “hidden curriculum” helped frame the national discussion of professionalism in medicine. 

Research Interest

  Dr. Hundert has written dozens of articles and chapters on a variety of topics in psychiatry, philosophy, medical ethics, and medical education, as well as two books: Philosophy, Psychiatry, and Neuroscience: Three Approaches to the Mind (Oxford University Press, 1989) and Lessons from an Optical Illusion: On Nature and Nurture, Knowledge and Values (Harvard University Press, 1995). The latter was translated into Chinese and published by the Beijing University Press (2000). Dr. Hundert's contributions to the literature on medical education include writings on the informal curriculum, curriculum design and management, specific curriculum reform experiences, and defining and assessing professional competence. His article, “Characteristics of the Informal Curriculum and Trainees’ Ethical Choices” (Academic Medicine 1996; 71) was included in the 2010 “Academic Medicine’s AM Classics Collection” of articles cited 50 or more times since 1990.