Projected on the drop-down screen, the question takes over the PowerPoint slide: “From a medical point of view, if you had to save the mother or the baby, who would you save?”
Around the classroom, hands raise as undergrads prepare to share their thoughts. As Biological and Biomedical Sciences Adjunct Professor Lisa Walkin, PT, MSPT, moderates the conversation, one student inquires on whether the fetus is viable. Another comments that the mom should be saved as she’s the one who’s produced the baby, and a third suggests prioritizing the baby since it has a whole life ahead of it.
Today’s lesson in Walkin’s “Introduction to Healthcare: Clinical and Business Perspectives” course focuses on the four pillars of medical ethics: beneficence, non-maleficence, autonomy, and justice. Covering each pillar in depth, the class spends the latter half of their Tuesday session talking through hypothetical situations and determining how to navigate these circumstances ethically as healthcare professionals.
“This one's complicated, and it’s something no one is ever going to agree on. But this is why medical ethics are so important,” says Walkin.
From ethics to economics
In Walkin’s course, undergrads learn about healthcare delivery and the industry’s rapid transformation. Starting the semester with an introduction on health professions and healthcare settings, students move on to examine services from a business standpoint, including insurance carriers, reimbursement, marketing, regulatory affairs, and political and economic factors.
“I want students to walk away with a better understanding of the business of healthcare: not from a financial perspective, but with how medical and business aspects work side by side,” says Walkin, who brings more than 30 years of experience to the course as a physical therapist.
Walkin’s class of 24 is a mix of majors from Bryant’s College of Business and School of Health and Behavioral Sciences. For Ava Basile ’26, the Accounting major has a job lined up at a tax, assurance, and advisory firm and foresees the course’s topics as beneficial to her future role.
“I'll be on the audit side of accounting. Many clients of ours are hospitals and clinics and, because I now understand how the healthcare system works, I’m better able to interpret where expenses are going in their financial statements and what those numbers really mean,” says Basile, noting that, on a personal level, the course has provided her with a well-rounded view of the healthcare system’s ins and outs as she navigates it for her own wellbeing.
Addressing equity and access
To maximize the learning experience, Walkin supplements course material with insights from her career; some topics even come from asking industry professionals what they wish someone had taught them in school. One of the frequent responses she receives is ‘insurance’ — prompting Walkin to walk undergrads through health insurers’ drug formulary and tier pricing system, understand the difference between generic and brand name medications, and have an idea of what pharmaceutical companies’ research and development processes look like.
For Biology major Brookelyn Talmadge ’27, the class’s insurance conversation was particularly eye-opening and helped her reflect on America’s healthcare system, where it stands in relation to other global healthcare systems, and recognize that achieving universal healthcare is not as simple as people make it out to be. From learning about socioeconomic and cultural determinants of access to healthcare to following where healthcare policy stands today, Talmadge highlights that the course’s conversation on diversity was a particularly important topic for her.
“I did my whole midterm paper about becoming a doctor because of the lack of diversity in healthcare,” she says, adding that her research for the paper taught her about the non-patient-facing business roles that people can pursue if they want to be in the industry but not on the medical side.
The topic of diversity also stood out to Ana Fuertes-Brito ’26, a Biology major and aspiring doctor, adding that the role of ethics and how different groups, especially minorities, lack access to healthcare piqued her interest.
“Being from Puerto Rico and being Latina, I can relate to this on a personal level,” says Fuertes-Brito.
A comprehensive view
Back in the classroom, the medical ethics conversation has evolved to talking about what to do if a patient refuses treatment for a life-threatening condition.
Listening to students’ answers, Walkin contributes her own thoughts and says an industry professional could say the following: This is why, as a medical professional, I think this is the best choice for you, and why I think you should choose ‘A’. If you choose ‘A,’ these are the pros and cons. If you choose ‘B,’ these are the pros and cons. If you choose to not do anything, this is what could happen.
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“You need to make sure you are laying it all out, so they have their autonomy but are making an informed choice,” she tells undergrads, emphasizing the third pillar of medical ethics.
As class time nears its end, Walkin reminds them of the course’s upcoming lessons where they will apply the pillars of ethics to real-world sceneries involving celebrities, cultural perspectives, research, and assisted suicide. The topics they cover may be challenging, but they are essential; at the end of all the industry’s science and business decisions, after all, is a patient.