Associate Professor Bernadette Richards
Bernadette’s role is to focus on the embedding of professionalism and ethics in the medical programme. She supports the design of learning across the curriculum so as to heighten awareness of these two important themes. As Integrity Officer she provides assistance for students to develop and maintain these skills.
Researcher biography
Bernadette Richards, BA, LLB (Hons), PhD has recently joined the University of Queensland Medical School as Associate Professor of Ethics and Professionalism. Prior to that she was working on the Future Health Technologies Project at the Singapore ETH Centre, Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE), Singapore, exploring trustworthy data governance. She is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Law at the Queensland University of Technology Australian Centre for Health Law Research and Adelaide Law School. She is a member of the NHMRC’s Australian Health Ethics Committee, the Embryo Research Licensing Committee and Dietary Guidelines Governance Committee and the South Australian Voluntary Assisted Dying Taskforce. She was previously the Chair of the Mitochondrial Donation Expert Working Committee and was involved in the proposed amendment to the law. Bernadette is the President of the Australasian Association of Bioethics and Health Law (AABHL), and is an active researcher, having completed major projects on organ donation, consent to treatment and legal issues around innovative surgery. She is a chief investigator on three current major grants, NHMRC Partnership Grant, “Strategies for the inclusion of vulnerable populations in developing complex and sensitive public policy: A case study in Advance Care Planning”, NHMRC Ideas Grant, 'The algorithm will see you now: ethical, legal and social implications of adopting machine learning systems for diagnosis and screening' and ARC Discovery Grant, 'Support or Sales? Medical Device Representatives in Australian Hospitals'. Her co-authored book, ‘Technology, Innovation and Healthcare: An evolving relationship’ was published in February 2022 and she has published over 90 journal articles, book chapters and books.