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Department of Philosophy

Directory

Leah McClimans

Title: Professor
Director of Undergraduate Studies, Women's and Gender Studies
Department: Philosophy
College of Arts and Sciences
Email: lmm@sc.edu
Office: Close-Hipp 528
Resources: Curriculum Vitae
Department of Philosophy
Women's and Gender Studies
Leah McClimans

Education 

PhD, London School of Economics, 2007

Research Interests 

Philosophy of Medicine, Medical Ethics, Feminist Philosophy. 

Most of my publications over the previous six years focus on what I call “patient-centered measurement”. Patient-centered measurement is the idea that patient perspectives on, e.g. their physical functioning or quality of life, should play an evidentiary role in determining how effective a drug is taken to be, the degree to which a hospital provides good quality or whether a particular intervention should be funded by an insurer. I'm currently working on a book with Oxford University Press titled Patient-Centered Measurement.

In addition to my work on measurement, I'm also interested in how to incorporate values into evidence-based medicine (EBM) and policy (EBP). A Marie Curie ASSISTID Fellowship in 2017-2019 allowed me to devote a substantial amount of time to developing this interest. Most of my work in this area focuses on Clinical Guideline Development, and I am a writing member of the multidisciplinary guideline development group for the National Cancer Control Programme in Ireland.

Finally, I also do research in medical and clinical ethics. My most recent work in these areas has been empirical. I'm interested in using these methods to better understand the evaluation of clinical ethics in the U.S. and U.K.

Publications

Books

I edited a volume on measurement in medicine: Measurement in Medicine: Philosophical Essays on Assessment and Evaluation. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

I also have a contract with OUP for a book on Patient-Centered Measurement.

Recent Ariticles
  • McClimans, L. “Measurement, Hermeneutics and Standardization: Why Gadamerian Hermeneutics is Necessary to Contemporary Philosophy of Science”, in Updating the Interpretive Turn New Arguments in Hermeneutics, ed. Michiel Meijer. New York: Routledge Press. Forthcoming. 
  • Vanier, A., Oort, F.J., McClimans, L., Ow, N., Gulek, B.G., Böhnke, J.R., Sprangers, M., Sébille, V., Mayo, N. and the Response Shift-in Synch Working Group, “Response shift in patient-reported outcomes: definition, theory and a revised model”, Quality of Life Research.  doi.org/10.1007/s11136-021-02846-w. Online First May 31, 2021
  • McClimans, L. “First-person epidemiological measures: Vehicles for patient-centered care”, Synthese. doi: 10.1007/s11229-019-02094-z. Online First 28 January 2019. 2021
  • McClimans, L., Pressgrove, G., and Campbell, E. “Objectives and Outcomes of Clinical Ethics Services: A Delphi Study”, Journal of Medical Ethics 45: 761-9. 2019
  • McClimans, L, Browne, J and Stefan, C. “Clinical Outcome Measurement: Models, Theory, Psychometrics and Practice”, Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science Part A, 65-66: 67-73. 2017
  • McClimans, L. “Place of Birth: Evidence and Ethics”, Topoi, 36: 531-8. 2017

Institutes and Activities

I am co-founder and co-director for the The Ann Johnson Institute for Science, Technology and Society with Allison Marsh, History.

I also run a research network out of the University of Oxford's Collaborating Centre for Values-Based Practice. It's called INVITE (Integrating Values Into Evidence-Based Medicine)

In the Spring 2020 the AJI and the Philosophy department became Institutional partners for the Consortium for Socially Relevant Philosophy of/in Science and Engineering or: SRPoiSE

Grants and Awards

Editorial boards and blogs

I'm on the editorial board for the Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, and Philosophy of Medicine.

Occasionally, I also write blog posts:

Challenge the conventional. Create the exceptional. No Limits.

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