Jonathan Fuller | Pitt Bioethics

Professional Statement

Jonathan Fuller, MD, PhD is Associate Professor in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science and the Department of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, where he is also Core Faculty Member in the Institute for Bioethics. Dr. Fuller’s research investigates the ethical and scientific foundations of medical research and practice, with a focus on diagnosis, clinical reasoning and decision-making, epidemiology and clinical research, evidence-based medicine, and innovations for Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr. Fuller is a fellow with the Greenwall Faculty Scholars Program, class of 2029. His Greenwall project investigates the ethical and conceptual dimensions of ‘diagnostic excellence’, including in the context of the biomarker-based diagnosis of Alzheimer’s. His recent book The New Modern Medicine: Disease, Evidence, and Epidemiological Medicine, was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health National Library of Medicine. It examines philosophical problems brought by the twentieth century integration of epidemiological research and epidemiological thinking into clinical medicine. He is also interested in how philosophy and the sciences of reasoning can enhance medical training.

Dr. Fuller completed both a PhD in philosophy and an MD at the University of Toronto, as well as a research fellowship in health professions education from the Wilson Centre in Toronto. He has been a visiting fellow or scholar in the Department of Philosophy at King’s College London, the Department of Philosophy at the University of California, San Diego, and the Department of Bioethics at the National Institutes of Health.

Appointments

Associate Professor Department of History and Philosophy of Science Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences
Associate Professor Department of Medicine School of Medicine
Director of the Research Ethics Consultation Service (RECS) Research, Ethics & Society Initiative
Core Faculty Institute for Bioethics
Research Associate Centre for Philosophy of Epidemiology, Medicine, and Public Health University of Johannesburg

Education and Training

MD, University of Toronto, 2019
Health Professions Education Research Fellowship, University of Toronto, 2016
PhD, University of Toronto, 2016
BMSc, Physiology, Western University, 2010

Professional Interests in Bioethics

Representative Publications

Fuller, J. The New Modern Medicine: Disease, Evidence, and Epidemiological Medicine. Oxford University Press 2025; https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-new-modern-medicine-9780190066147?cc=us&lang=en&#.

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Chin-Yee, B. and J. Fuller. Magic bullet or marginal bet—does precision medicine offer the best hope for sick individuals and sick populations? Philosophy of Science forthcoming.
Fuller, J., Chin-Yee, B., and R.E. Upshur. The argument framework: a flexible approach to evidence in healthcare. Nature Medicine 2024; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-024-02930-x.

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Fuller, J. Demarcating scientific medicine. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 2024;106: 177-185.

Recent Funding

Principal Investigator. ‘Bioethics of diagnostic error and diagnostic excellence’. 2026
Faculty Scholars Program, Greenwall Foundation. 448, 003 USD.
July 2026-June 2029. Awarded.
Principal Investigator. ‘The biomarkerization of Alzheimer’s: ethical and 2026
conceptual implications of biomarker tests and criteria for the clinical
diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease’. ADRC Developmental Grant,
National Institutes of Health National Institute on Aging.
119, 250 USD. March 2026 - Feb 2027. Awarded.
Principal Investigator. ‘The new modern medicine’. Grant for Scholarly 2022
Works in Biomedicine and Health, National Institutes of Health
National Library of Medicine. 50,000 USD. Jan-Dec 2022. Awarded.