Justin Clapp, PhD, MPH is an Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology & Critical Care and Medical Ethics & Health Policy at the Perelman School of Medicine. He is also Associated Faculty in Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Clapp is a linguistic and medical anthropologist who uses qualitative methods and anthropological theory to examine issues in empirical bioethics, health care communication, and medical decision making. His primary work examines patient care trajectories in the perioperative and critical care spaces, seeking to understand how diffuse chains of health care interactions lead to the pursuit of particular treatments.
The goal of this work is to develop ethical and interventional models of medical decision making better tailored to the empirical complexities of illness and care. Dr. Clapp also maintains lines of research in medical education and medical research ethics. He teaches courses in Penn’s Anthropology department and MPH program, and he collaborates widely with other investigators on qualitative projects.
Dr. Clapp received his PhD in Anthropology and MPH from the University of Pennsylvania.