Michael C. Brannigan (Ph.D., Philosophy, M.A., Religious Studies, University of Leuven, Belgium) is the George and Jane Pfaff Endowed Chair in Ethics and Moral Values at The College of Saint Rose in Albany, New York. Holder of the first endowed chair in the college’s history, he is also on the faculty of the Alden March Bioethics Institute at Albany Medical College. Prior to his appointment, he was Vice President for Clinical and Organizational Ethics at the Center for Practical Bioethics in Kansas City, Missouri. Before that, he was Founder and Executive Director of the Institute for Cross-Cultural Ethics at La Roche College, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. To complement his rich and longstanding clinical experience as an ethics consultant, hospital ethics committee advisor, and hospice volunteer, his specialty lies in ethics, Asian philosophy, medical ethics, and intercultural ethics. Along with numerous articles, his books include: Ethics Across Cultures; Striking a Balance: A Primer in Traditional Asian Values; The Pulse of Wisdom: The Philosophies of India, China, and Japan; Healthcare Ethics in a Diverse Society (co-authored); Cross-Cultural Biotechnology; and Ethical Issues in Human Cloning. He serves on the editorial boards of Health Care Analysis: An International Journal of Health Care Philosophy and Policy and Communication and Medicine. He also writes a monthly column on ethics for the Albany Times Union, at http://www.timesunion.com/brannigan/. Michael was born in Fukuoka, Japan. He and his wife Brooke, along with their dog Seamus, live in Niskayuna, New York. For fun, he plays piano, guitar, tennis, ocean kayaks, and practices martial arts.

This is a book about the nature of ‘cultural competency,’ its vital significance in healthcare, and the social and cultural barriers to achieving it that exist both in the process of American medical education and in the American system of health care delivery. It has a meta-message about what Brannigan regards as ‘the virtue of presence’ —how health professionals ideally should relate to, and communicate with patients and their families.

• IntroductionChapter One: When Worldviews CollideChapter Two: From Fault Lines to Cultural CompetencyChapter Three: Cultural Discourse and Its HurdlesChapter Four: On the Path to PresenceChapter Five: Cultivating Presence When There Is Distrust

Michael C. Brannigan (Ph.D., Philosophy, M.A., Religious Studies, University of Leuven, Belgium) is the George and Jane Pfaff Endowed Chair in Ethics and Moral Values at The College of Saint Rose in Albany, New York. Holder of the first endowed chair in the college’s history, he is also on the faculty of the Alden March Bioethics Institute at Albany Medical College. Prior to his appointment, he was Vice President for Clinical and Organizational Ethics at the Center for Practical Bioethics in Kansas City, Missouri. Before that, he was Founder and Executive Director of the Institute for Cross-Cultural Ethics at La Roche College, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. To complement his rich and longstanding clinical experience as an ethics consultant, hospital ethics committee advisor, and hospice volunteer, his specialty lies in ethics, Asian philosophy, medical ethics, and intercultural ethics. Along with numerous articles, his books include: Ethics Across Cultures; Striking a Balance: A Primer in Traditional Asian Values; The Pulse of Wisdom: The Philosophies of India, China, and Japan; Healthcare Ethics in a Diverse Society (co-authored); Cross-Cultural Biotechnology; and Ethical Issues in Human Cloning. He serves on the editorial boards of Health Care Analysis: An International Journal of Health Care Philosophy and Policy and Communication and Medicine. He also writes a monthly column on ethics for the Albany Times Union, at http://www.timesunion.com/brannigan/. Michael was born in Fukuoka, Japan. He and his wife Brooke, along with their dog Seamus, live in Niskayuna, New York. For fun, he plays piano, guitar, tennis, ocean kayaks, and practices martial arts.

This is a book about the nature of ‘cultural competency,’ its vital significance in healthcare, and the social and cultural barriers to achieving it that exist both in the process of American medical education and in the American system of health care delivery. It has a meta-message about what Brannigan regards as ‘the virtue of presence’ —how health professionals ideally should relate to, and communicate with patients and their families.

• IntroductionChapter One: When Worldviews CollideChapter Two: From Fault Lines to Cultural CompetencyChapter Three: Cultural Discourse and Its HurdlesChapter Four: On the Path to PresenceChapter Five: Cultivating Presence When There Is Distrust