Harvard Surgical Ethics Conference

The Surgical Ethics Working Group (SEWG) at Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics offers a free virtual surgical ethics conference over four weeks. Each week features a different topic that explores timely and controversial questions in surgery today. Topics are relevant to practicing surgeons, surgery residents, medical students, nurses, nursing students, advanced practice providers, bioethicists, graduate students, and other health care professionals. Participants learn how to accurately distinguish and discuss the ethical challenges associated with these surgical issues. Subscribe to the Center's Biweekly Newsletter to receive updates on the next conference!

2025 Harvard Surgical Ethics Conference

→ Registration is open!

Please visit the Boston Children's Hospital website for the latest information.

Format

This virtual conference series will be held weekly on Mondays over four weeks in April 2025. Each session will run from 7:00-9:00 p.m. Eastern Time and will feature a different topic exploring timely and, in some cases, controversial ethical topics in surgery. Each session will include three short talks (20-25 minutes each) by expert faculty from the Center for Bioethics and others. This will be followed by a moderated question and answer period with the speakers. The interactive format is designed to encourage participant engagement and address their specific questions.

1. "Teaching Bioethics" on April 7, 2025
2. "Controversies in Transplant Ethics" on April 14, 2025
3. "Ethical Challenges in Global Health and Surgery" on April 21, 2025
4. "Implementation of AI in Surgery: Ethical Considerations” on April 28, 2025

At the end of each session, participants will be required to complete a short online series of self-assessment questions. The course aims to enable participants to critically assess and apply ethical principles in their own practice. Stay tuned for an upcoming detailed schedule featuring exciting topics and speakers! Presentations will be available on-demand for all paid attendees for six weeks after the conference.

Objectives

Upon completion of this course, participants will:

• Utilize case studies, ethical theories and frameworks, and artificial intelligence for the development and delivery of surgical ethics education, ensuring that the methods promote integrity, professionalism, and respect for persons.
• Critically evaluate ethical dilemmas in transplantation including normothermic regional perfusion for organ donation, vascularized composite allotransplants including uterus transplants, and the use of brain-dead donors as experimental subjects for xenotransplantation using case-based discussions and current guidelines.
• Analyze ethical challenges in global surgery with a focus on global health priorities and the complex effects of the loss of local expertise on efforts to improve surgical access in low-and-middle income countries to order to augment decision-making in resource-limited settings.
• Understand and assess the impact of artificial intelligence on clinical decision-making, identify potential risks and benefits, where it might most easily and appropriately be deployed, and propose strategies to ethically integrate AI into surgical practice.
• Develop strategies for implementing ethical guidelines into daily surgical practice by compiling knowledge from case studies, panel discussions, and journals, aimed at improving patient care and professional accountability

Registration

Registration is required. If this is your first time registering for a course at Boston Children's Hospital, you will need to create an account. Please use an email address that you check frequently, as it will be used to send important information about the course. Once you have registered you will receive a confirmation email with a registration receipt. Course access instructions will be sent a few days prior to the course launch. If you have questions or need assistance with registration, please direct all inquiries to cmedepartment@childrens.harvard.edu.

Accreditation

In support of improving patient care, Boston Children's Hospital is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.

Physician: Boston Children’s Hospital designates this live activity for a maximum of 8.00 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits ™. Physicians should claim only credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in this activity.

Nurse: Boston Children’s Hospital designates this activity for 8.00 contact hours for nurses. Nurses should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Psychology: Continuing Education (CE) credits for psychologists are provided through the co-sponsorship of the American Psychological Association (APA) Office of Continuing Education in Psychology (CEP). The APA CEP Office maintains responsibly for the content of the programs.

This course has been approved for 8.00 continuing education credits.

Social Work: As a Jointly Accredited Organization, Boston Children’s Hospital is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved under this program. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. Boston Children’s Hospital maintains responsibility for this course. Social workers completing this course receive 8.00 ACE CE continuing education credits.

Pharmacy: This activity carries a maximum of 8 contact hours. Pharmacists should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

MOC II: Successful completion of this CME activity, which includes participation in the activity, with individual assessments of the participant and feedback to the participant, enables the participant to earn:

• 8.00 MOC points in the American Board of Pediatrics (ABP) Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program.
• 8.00 MOC points with the American Board of Internal Medicine’s (ABIM) Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program.
• 8.00 MOC points in the American Board of Anesthesiology (ABA) Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program.
• 8.00 MOC points in the American Board of Surgery (ABS) Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program.

Credits

CME - AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™ (8.00 hours), American Board of Anesthesia MOC (8.00 hours), American Board of Internal Medicicine MOC (8.00 hours), American Board of Pediatrics MOC (8.00 hours), American Board of Surgery (ABS) MOC (8.00 hours), American Psychology Association (APA) Psychology Credits (8.00 hours), Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Social Work Credits (8.00 hours), CNE (Nursing) (8.00 hours)