Sheri Alpert, M.P.A., Ph.D.
Dr. Sheri Alpert is a postdoctoral fellow for the IU Center for Bioethics. She is leading the ethics component of a project to develop an ethics framework to guide the design of systems that allow patients to specify sharing and privacy preferences for their electronic medical information. Before coming to the IUCB, Dr. Alpert held positions as a Lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Bioethics and as a research associate at Dalhousie University (Halifax, Nova Scotia) working on issues in neuroethics. Before that, she was the Director of the Undergraduate Program in Science, Technology, and Values at the University of Notre Dame. Prior to her academic career, Dr. Alpert worked for the U.S. federal government in various agencies and offices, including the Office of Management and Budget, the National Bioethics Advisory Commission, and the Internal Revenue Service (in the Office of the Privacy Advocate). Her policy expertise in her government work was in information and technology policy, most particularly in personal and informational privacy.
Dr. Alpert's Ph.D. is in public policy, with a focus on science and technology policy, from George Mason University, and her research interests and publications to date have largely focused on medical and genetic privacy. Her current research focuses on ethical and policy issues associated with emerging medical technologies, particularly in the neuroscience realm, and the future convergence of these and other technologies, such as nanotechnology. Dr. Alpert is an Associate Editor for the journal Neuroethics and on the editorial board for Accountability in Research. She has spoken nationally and internationally on issues of medical and genetic privacy, as well as on ethical issues in implantable brain-computer interface devices and the adequacy of medical device regulations.
Selected Papers
Alpert S. Neuroethics & nanoethics. In: Guston D, editor. Encyclopedia of nanoscience and society. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications; 2010. p. 600-2.
Alpert S. Privacy issues in clinical genomic medicine, or Marcus Welby, M.D., meets the $1000 genome. Camb Q Healthc Ethics. 2008 Fall;17(4):373-84. PubMed PMID: 18724878.
Alpert S. Brain-Computer Interface devices: risks and Canadian regulations. Account Res. 2008 Apr-Jun;15(2):63-86. PubMed PMID: 18593098.
Alpert S. Neuroethics & nanoethics: do we risk ethical myopia? Neuroethics. 2008;1(1):55-68. Alpert S. Brain privacy: how can we protect it? Am J Bioeth. 2007 Sep;7(9):70-3. PubMed PMID: 17849353.
Alpert S. Protecting medical privacy: challenges in the age of genetic information. Journal of Social Issues. 2003;59(2): 301-322.
Wynia MK, Coughlin SS, Alpert S, Cummins DS, Emanuel LL. Shared expectations for protection of identifiable health care information: report of a national consensus process. J Gen Intern Med. 2001 Feb;16(2):100-11. PubMed PMID: 11251761; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC1495179.
Alpert S. Privacy and the analysis of stored tissues. In National Bioethics Advisory Commission. Research involving human biological materials: ethical issues and policy guidance, volume II: commissioned papers. Rockville, MD: NBAC; 2000. p. A1-A36.
Naser C, Alpert S. Genetic information, ethics, ethical issues in tissue banking and human subject research in stored tissues. In Murray T, Mehlman M, eds. Encyclopedia of ethical, legal, and policy issues in biotechnology. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2000. p. 363-89.
Alpert S. Health care information: confidentiality, access, and good practice. In Goodman KW, editor. Ethics, computing and medicine: informatics and the transformation of health care. New York: Cambridge University Press; 1998. p. 75-101.
Alpert S. Smart cards, smarter policy. Medical records, privacy, and health care reform. Hastings Cent Rep. 1993 Nov-Dec;23(6):13-23. PubMed PMID: 8307741.
