Amber Comer, PhD, JD is an Associate Professor of Health Sciences and Medicine who holds faculty appointments in the School of Health and Human Sciences, Department of Health Sciences and the School of Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine. Dr. Comer is an affiliate faculty in the School of Medicine, Center for Bioethics, the RESPECT Center, and the Regenstrief Institute. Dr. Comer also holds an adjunct faculty appointment in the McKinney School of Law. She is also the Director of Ethics Policy and Secretary of the Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs for the American Medical Association 

Dr. Comer holds a PhD from the Indiana University Fairbanks School of Public Health with a minor in Bioethics, a JD from the Indiana University McKinney School of Law with a concentration in Health Law, and she completed a Medical Ethics Fellowship at the Indiana University Fairbanks Center for Medical Ethics. Dr. Comer is also a member of the Indiana State Bar. 

Dr. Comer is a palliative care researcher and bioethicist who is an expert in medical decision making for hospitalized patients with critical illness. Dr. Comer's sub focus is neuropalliative care. Dr. Comer's research goal is to reduce suffering at the end of life by improving the quality of medical decision making. Her work has been nationally recognized and has been cited in clinical practice guidelines and played a role in changing Indiana's Health Care Consent Law. 

Selected Courses:

• IU School of Health and Human Sciences: W363- Medical Ethics
• IU Department of History: H364 - Legal and Regulatory Aspects of Healthcare Delivery
• IU School of Liberal Arts: T366 - Medical Decision Making in Film
• IU McKinney School of Law: D882 - Bioethics and the Law

Selected Guest Lectures:

• “Research on Cognitively Impaired Persons”, Indiana University School of Medicine.
• "Ethics of Artificial Nutrition and Hydration", Indiana University School of Health and Human Sciences
• "Physician Aid-in-Dying: Legal and Ethical Challenges", Indiana University Fairbanks Center for Medical Ethics

Selected Publications:

• Comer AR. Templeton E, Glidden M, Bartlett S, D'Cruz L, Nemati D, Zabel S, Slaven J. National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) Scoring Inconsistencies Between Neurologists and Emergency Room Nurses. Frontiers in Neurology. 2023.
• Comer AR. Fettig L, Bartlet S, L D'Cruz, Umythachuk, Nina. Physician Self-Reported Use of Empathy in Clinical Practice. Clinical Ethics. 2022.
• Comer AR. The Evolving Ethics of Anatomy: Dissecting an Unethical Past in Order to Prepare for a Future of Ethical Anatomical Practice. The Anatomical Record. 2022.

Additional publications: PubMed

Funding:

Selected Grants:

Validating a Tool to Identify Stroke Patients with Palliative Care Needs (PI)

$175,000 from National Palliative Care Research Center 2019

Description: The primary objective seeks to understand how the receipt of goals of care conversations influences decisions about life sustaining care and goals of care, including the use of DNR orders, mechanical ventilation, ICU utilization, hospice referrals, discharge location, mortality, and advance directives/ POLST forms. The second identifies how neurologists, patients, and families currently understand and communicate about prognosis and treatment decisions after severe stroke.

Selected Activities:

• Member - Eskenazi Hospital medical ethics committee and ethics consultation service
• Member - Eskenazi Hospital Remdesivir Allocation Committee
• Member - American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine
• Member - American Public Health Association
• Member - Chronicles of Health Impact Assessment Journal Editorial Board