Dr. Clapp is a linguistic and medical anthropologist who uses qualitative methods and social scientific theory to develop empirically tractable frameworks for examining medical ethics. His work focuses on both clinical and research ethics. In the clinical space, he studies medical decision making in several clinical settings including surgery, critical illness, and dementia. By characterizing how decisions about the initiation or withdrawal of treatment are connected to broader social and cultural processes, this work reframes traditional ethical concerns about clinician-patient communication, clinical expertise, and the use of biotechnology. In the research space, Dr. Clapp has examined topics such as the practices of institutional review boards (IRBs), the on-the-ground tensions generated by pragmatic clinical trials, and the conduct of community consultation for exception from informed consent (EFIC) research. Dr. Clapp’s work has been published in many journals including American Journal of Bioethics, Social Science & Medicine, Academic Medicine, JAMA Surgery, Annals of Surgery, and American Journal of Kidney Diseases.
