Henry J. Silverman, MD, MA

• Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, BS, Biomedical Engineering, 1974
• Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, MS, Biomedical Engineering, 1974
• The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, M.D, 1978
• Georgetown University, MA, Bioethics, 1995

Henry Silverman, a distinguished clinical ethicist and educator, holds the position of Professor of Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He serves as the Principal Investigator for several R25 Fogarty International Center/NIH-sponsored research ethics training programs across the Arab Middle East and Myanmar. Additionally, he is a co-investigator for a Fogarty program in The Gambia. Through these initiatives, he has cultivated rich interdisciplinary collaborations, which have deepened his understanding of the complexities inherent in international research ethics. Dr. Silverman has mentored numerous international trainees, guiding them in refining their research projects and achieving significant advancements in the field of research ethics.

Dr. Silverman has an extensive publication record on ethical issues related to research ethics and research integrity in the Arab Middle East and Myanmar. His international research agenda encompasses topics such as informed consent, the status of research ethics committees, stakeholders' attitudes towards genomic and biobank research, plagiarism, research misconduct, and perceptions of the research integrity climate in Egyptian universities.

Before concentrating on research and medical ethics, Dr. Silverman distinguished himself in critical care clinical trials at the University of Maryland Medical Center. He served as the Principal Investigator for the NIH-funded ARDSNet consortium in the 1990s. During this period, he published several papers addressing the ethical issues of clinical trials, including the ethical significance of equipoise and the role of standard of care groups in research.

At the University of Maryland Medical Center, he chairs the Ethical Advisory Committee, which performs ethics consultations, provides ethics education, and advises on hospital policies concerning clinical ethics.  At the University of Maryland Graduate School, Dr. Silverman directs a 12-credit online certificate program in research ethics. At the University of Maryland School of Medicine, he is a reviewer for the Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund, he serves as the faculty mentor for the Medical Ethics Interest Group at the medical school, and oversees the annual Howard B. May Lectureship in Medical Ethics and the History of Medicine.

Dr. Silverman's research on clinical ethics includes studies on medical students' handling of ethical issues, ensuring quality in ethics consultation, moral distress among nurses caring for COVID-19 patients, the perception of the ethical decision-making climate among healthcare providers in ICUs, and the ethics of heart xenotransplantation.

His dedication to teaching has been recognized with several awards, including the Senior Resident's Award for Teaching (1988), the Senior Medical Student's Award for Humanism in Medicine (2001), and the Teaching Award Department of Public Health University of Maryland Medical School (2013),

Research Ethics • Medical Ethics • Global Training Programs • Ethics Consultations

Silverman HJ, Kheirbek RE, Moscou-Jackson G, Day J. Moral distress in nurses caring for patients with Covid-19. Nurs Ethics. 2021 Nov-Dec;28(7-8):1137-1164. doi: 10.1177/09697330211003217.

Silverman, HJ., Wilson, T., Tisherman, S. et al. Ethical decision-making climate, moral distress, and intention to leave among ICU professionals in a tertiary academic hospital center. BMC Med Ethics 23, 45 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-022-00775-y.

Ei Mon Phyo, Theoo Lwin, Hpone Pyae Tun, Zaw Zaw Oo, Kyaw Swa Mya & Henry Silverman (2022) Knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding plagiarism of postgraduate students in Myanmar, Accountability in Research, DOI: 10.1080/08989621.2022.2077643

Silverman HJ and Odonkor P.  (2022) Re-evaluating the ethical Issues in porcine-to-human heart xenotransplantation.   Hastings Cent Rep. 2022 Sep;52(5):32-42. doi: 10.1002/hast.1419. PMID: 36226875; PMCID: PMC9828571.

Mohammed, Z., Abdelgawad, F., Ahram, M., Ibrahim, M. E., Elgamri, A., Gamel, E., Adarmouch, L., Rhazi, K. E., Abd ElHafeez, S., & Silverman, HJ. (2024). Opinions and attitudes of research ethics committees in Arab countries in the Middle East and North African region toward ethical issues involving biobank research. Research Ethics, 20(1), 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1177/17470161231185510