Seminars and Events

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Professionalism is the basis of medicine’s contract with society. However, increasingly, genuine medical professionalism seems to have come under threat as market and bureaucratic forces shape the practice and delivery of medicine. How has the health care organization contributed to this environment, and how should the health care organization operate in relation to medical professionalism? What mechanisms might facilitate organizational accountability to professionalism? Join us for a seminar and discussion exploring concepts of organizational professionalism and the future of medicine.

Presenter:

• Fred Hafferty, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Medical Education, Mayo Clinic and University of Minnesota Medical School

Discussants:

• Edward M. Hundert, MD, Associate Director, Center for Bioethics; Senior Lecturer, Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School
• Lauren Taylor, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Population Health, NYU GrossmanSchool of Medicine

Moderator:

• Kelsey Berry, PhD,Lecturer, Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School

Artificial intelligence is poised for impact on every aspect of healthcare, healthcare systems, and clinical practice. As use cases emerge, careful analysis of ethical concerns and new legal and regulatory tools are needed. This conversation among experts will explore the ethical considerations for medical and consider current and possible legal and regulatory approaches.

Presenters:

• I. Glenn Cohen, JD, James A. Attwood and Leslie Williams Professor of Law, Deputy Dean, and Faculty Director, Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology & Bioethics at Harvard Law School
• Claudia E. Haupt, PhD, JSD, LLM, Professor of Law and Political Science, Northeastern University School of Law

 
Moderator:

• Mason Marks, MD, JD, Florida Bar Health Law Section Professor, Florida State University College of Law; Senior Fellow, Project Lead, Project on Psychedelics Law and Regulation (POPLAR), Petrie-Flom Center

Hospital policies have a fundamental role in the care of patients, yet significant variability exists across hospitals in core patient-facing policies. In this Clinical Ethics Conversation, we will learn from clinical ethics leaders about variations in policy across their institutions (using policies addressing potentially inappropriate/non-beneficial treatment as a case example) and examine ethical arguments that support or oppose such variability.

Presenters:

• Brian Cummings, MD,Chair, Pediatric Ethics Committee, Massachusetts General Hospital
• Lindsay Semler DNP, RN, CCRN, HEC-C, Executive Director of Clinical Ethics, BWH
• David Sontag JD, MBE, HEC-C, Senior Associate General Counsel and Director of Ethics, BILH
• Kayte Spector-Bagdady JD, MBE, HEC-C, Interim Co-director, University of Michigan Center for Bioethics and Social Sciences in Medicine

Watch recording on YouTube.

Private equity ownership of medical practices in the last decade has increased more than sixfold and takeovers are often associated with worse patient outcomes, including mortality, and increased prices. Current regulatory options appear insufficient to address these concerns. This session examined trends in private equity in health care markets, effects on care, and law and regulatory solutions.

Presenters:

• Zirui Song, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Health Care Policy and Medicine, Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School; Internal Medicine Physician, Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital
• Erin C Fuse Brown, JD, MPH, Director of Health Policy and Law Lab, Professor of Health Services, Policy and Research, Brown University School of Public Health

Moderator:

• Hussain Lalani, MD, MPH, MSc, Instructor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Associate Physician, Department of Medicine, Division of General Medicine and Primary Care, Brigham and Women's Hospital

Watch recording on YouTube.

The potential opportunities for AI in healthcare are immense, with it already being deployed in clinical, research, and administrative areas of healthcare. However, may concerns exist about AI in these settings, including those related to bias, uncertainty, and trust. With data emerging that AI can be taught empathy and moral reasoning, might there be a role for AI in clinical ethics practice? This session will explore these questions, based on current data and ongoing research regarding the possibilities and challenges related to AI and LLMs in healthcare.

The lectures will be from 4-5:30 pm ET, followed by a reception from 5:30-6:30 pm ET.

Presenters:

• Spencer Hey, PhD, Philosopher, Researcher; Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer, Prism Analytic Technologies
• Andrew Hantel, MD, Medical Oncologist, Researcher, Bioethicist; Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School

Moderator: Jonathan M. Marron, MD, MPH, HEC-C, Director of Clinical Ethics, HMS Center for Bioethics

Support provided by the Oswald DeN. Cammann Fund at Harvard University.

Im/migrants are diverse populations with different health needs who often face barriers to being healthy and accessing health care in the US. This session will explore patterns of health care use, what works well to provide care and improve access, and future policy solutions to promote health equity.

Presenters:

• Sarah Kimball, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, Boston University Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine; Director, Immigrant and Refugee Health Center, Boston Medical Center
• Arturo Vargas Bustamante, PhD, MPP, Professor, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health; Faculty Research Director, UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute

Moderator: Maple Goh, MBChB, MPH, CARB-X Fellow, Boston University School of Law; Fellow, Program on Regulation, Therapeutics, and Law (PORTAL), Brigham and Women's Hospital

Support provided by the Oswald DeN. Cammann Fund at Harvard University.

Watch recording on YouTube.

The concept of professionalism in health care is both newer and more fragile than many assume. The history, strengths, risks, and alternatives to professionalism should be understood if we hope to create a future in which health professionals work well together in teams to effectively and ethically serve our patients and communities. Matthew Wynia, MD, MPH, FACP, is a professor of medicine and public health at the University of Colorado, where he directs the CU Center for Bioethics and Humanities.

In-person seating is currently full. Please register for access to the livestream. The Zoom link and call-in details will be provided in follow-up emails as we get closer to the event date. This event will be recorded. Support provided by the Oswald DeN. Cammann Fund at Harvard University.

Watch recording on YouTube.

How can ethics help health care organizational leaders navigate emerging challenges in the practice and business of medicine? Join the Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics for a fireside chat with Dr. Sachin Jain, President and CEO of SCAN Group and Health Plan, to explore the trends and challenges that face health care organizations today and the role that ethics and ethics leaders can play in charting a course forward. We will explore what it means (and takes) for organizational leaders to adopt an ethics lens in their decision making, critically reexamine dominant frameworks for setting organizational strategy such as ‘no margin, no mission’, and interrogate the moral leadership crisis and possible solutions in health care. 

Dr. Sachin Jain is a President and CEO of SCAN Group and Health Plan, a $4.3billion non-profit entity that serves over 300,000 patients. Previously, he was President and CEO of CareMore and Aspire Health, held leadership positions in Merck and Company and the US Department of Health and Human Services, and was a practicing physician in the US Department of Veterans Affairs. Dr. Jain teaches and frequently writes and speaks on transformation and innovation across the health care sector, with special attention to the values-based tensions that arise for health organizations and their leaders in an evolving, and often faltering, health care industry. He is regularly recognized as a “Top 50 Most Influential Clinical Leader” and “100 Most Influential People in US Healthcare” by Modern Healthcare, and has led SCAN Group to recent recognition as one of Modern Healthcare’s 2024 Diversity Leader Organizations.

Dr. Jain will be joined in conversation by Dr. Lauren Taylor, a management scholar, ethicist, and assistant professor in the Department of Population Health at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, and Dr. Kelsey Berry, a population-level bioethics scholar at the Center for Bioethics and Lecturer in Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Presenter: Sachin H. Jain, MD, MBA, President and CEO of SCAN Group and Health Plan

Panelist: Lauren Taylor, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Population Health, NYU Grossman School of Medicine

Moderator: Kelsey Berry, PhD Lecturer, Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School

Support provided by the Oswald DeN. Cammann Fund at Harvard University.

Watch recording on YouTube.

Traditional knowledge, often from indigenous communities, has sometimes been patented and commercialized, raising concerns about who benefits from knowledge, patentability, and the co-option of communities’ knowledge or practices, sometimes referred to as “biopiracy”. In May 2024, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) issued new guidelines on genetic resources and traditional knowledge and a new treaty that could be the start of new international trade and intellectual property protections for traditional knowledge. In this session, we will explore the ethics of commercialization and justice for communities that share their knowledge.

Presenters:

• Nicole Redvers, ND, MPH, DPhilc, Associate Professor, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University (Canada)
• Angela R. Riley, JD, Professor of Law, UCLA; Director, Native Nations Law and Policy Center; Justice, Supreme Court of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation

Moderator: Daniel Eisenkraft Klein, PhD, Program On Regulation, Therapeutics And Law (PORTAL), Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School

Support provided by the Oswald DeN. Cammann Fund at Harvard University.

2023 marks the 300^th anniversary of the passing of Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, commonly known as "the Father of Microbiology." Using single-lensed microscopes of his own design and make, van Leeuwenhoek was the first to observe and to experiment with microbes. Join us as we celebrate the life and work of van Leeuwenhoek, discuss challenges facing microbiology and antimicrobial resistance in the modern day, and explore the future of Life Science programming at both museums.

Dr. Insoo Hyun will host a luncheon and panel discussion in collaboration with Rijksmuseum Boerhaave, the national museum for science and medicine in the Netherlands. This interactive event will serve as further proof-of-concept of what the Museum of Science’s Center for Life Sciences can achieve in collaboration with the community around us, and with our strong international partnerships.

Watch the recording on our YouTube channel.

A new dawn of brain tracking and hacking is coming. Will you be prepared for what comes next? Imagine a world where your brain can be interrogated to learn your political beliefs, your thoughts can be used as evidence of a crime, and your own feelings can be held against you. A world where people who suffer from epilepsy receive alerts moments before a seizure, and the average person can peer into their own mind to eliminate painful memories or cure addictions. Neuroscience has already made all of this possible today, and neurotechnology will soon become the “universal controller” for all of our interactions with technology. This can benefit humanity immensely, but without safeguards, it can seriously threaten our fundamental human rights to privacy, freedom of thought, and self-determination.

From one of the world’s foremost experts on the ethics of neuroscience, The Battle for Your Brain offers a path forward to navigate the complex legal and ethical dilemmas that will fundamentally impact our freedom to understand, shape, and define ourselves. In this event, author and Duke Law Professor Nita A. Farahany will discuss her new book in conversation with Harvard Medical School and Harvard Law School faculty member Dr. Francis X. Shen.

This event was co-hosted by the Harvard Neuroethics Hub and Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics. Watch the recording on our YouTube channel.

At present, the US Supreme Court has no categorical exemption from the death penalty for the severely mentally ill. Many have argued in favor of creating one, given that such defendants arguably suffer from at least the same degree of impaired adaptive functioning and understanding of the law as intellectually disabled or juvenile defendants – who are exempted for these very reasons. Yet existing protections for the severely mentally ill in the form of competency tests and the extremely narrow insanity defense are insufficient due to the stigma and misconceptions of mental illnesses impacting juries and legislators alike. 

Recently, there have been renewed attempts to pass bills creating such an exemption in some states that retain use of the death penalty. This has met with varying -- mostly limited -- degrees of success. And while there has been significant in-principle support in the academic community, the legal literature often glosses over potential problems that might arise from its actual implementation – in particular, with regards to evidence admitted in support of such claims and the roles of neuroscience and forensic psychiatry. 

This event invited three panelists with expertise in the relevant fields of law, psychiatry, psychology and neuroscience to weigh in on interdisciplinary questions that may prove key to the success of reforms in the area. These include the potential of neuroscientific evidence in aiding in the definition of the types and severity of conditions covered by such an exemption during legislation and its application at trial, its interaction with expert testimony and evidentiary issues, and the broader implications of its use on risk assessment and crime control.

Presenters:

Judge Nancy Gertner, JD, MA
Senior Lecturer of Law, Harvard Law School
Managing Director, MGH Center for Law, Brain and Behavior
Former Federal Judge

Judith G. Edersheim, JD, MD
Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, HMS
Attending Psychiatrist, Department of Psychiatry, MGH
Co-Founder and Co-Director, MGH Center for Law, Brain and Behavior

Arielle Baskin-Sommers, PhD
Licensed Clinical Psychologist, Associate Professor of Psychology, Yale Child Study Center, Yale University

This lecture defined the concept of therapeutic misconception in clinical research, reviewed the empirical data regarding its prevalence, and analyzed whether and when it threatens the validity of informed consent.

Speaker:

Steven Joffe, MD, MPH
Art and Ilene Penn Professor
Chair, Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy
Professor of Pediatrics
University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine

Moderators:

Melissa E. Abraham, PhD
Assistant Professor of Psychology, Massachusetts General Hospital
Course Instructor in Medical Ethics, Harvard Medical School

Rebecca Li, PhD
Board Member and Executive Director, Vivli

"Sometimes, in medicine, innovation can come from unexpected sources. N of 1 follows a striking mix of characters on an international journey to save the life of Kayte, a 26-year-old from Alabama, whose doctors had run out of options for treating her rare, highly lethal liver cancer. Via a Facebook group for the few people in the world sharing her diagnosis, Kayte connects with Howard, a Canadian electronics businessman with no medical training, who has doubled in his spare time as a patient advocate, often scouring medical journals to understand cancer better to help patients like her. Howard recruits for Kayte a pioneering immunologist from Israel and renowned transplant surgeon from England to travel to India, where Kayte will undergo a first-of-its-kind procedure to save her life, and possibly dramatically advance traditional cancer treatment as we know it. This experimental treatment, a partial bone marrow transplant followed by a live liver transplant, may have pushed the regulatory boundaries of evidence-based medicine. But when you’re an N of 1 — a singular patient, dying from a very rare and little researched disease — in the words of Kayte, to get to a cure, 'someone has to be the first to say 'I'll try it." Watch the trailer here.

Q&A Panelists:

Bernard Friedman
Director and Producer, "N of 1" (2019)
Founder and Creative Director, Flying Mind Production Company

Ephraim Fuchs, MD
Professor of Oncology, Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center

Barbara Bierer, MD
Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Faculty Director, Multi-Regional Clinical Trials Center
Director, Regulatory Foundations, Ethics and Law Program, Harvard Catalyst

Moderator:

Robert D. Truog, MD, MA
Director, Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics
Frances Glessner Lee Professor of Legal Medicine
Professor of Anaesthesia (Pediatrics), Harvard Medical School

Watch the recording on our YouTube channel.

For the poor, mentally ill, uninsured, homeless, and racial minorities, emergency rooms play a crucial "safety net" function. Yet even though the ER receives people at particularly vulnerable moments, courts do not sufficiently protect patients who come under law enforcement scrutiny. In this talk, Professor Song described how courts have viewed policing in the emergency room as an extension of street policing. In doing so, courts ignore the medical vulnerability of patients and undervalue medical professionals' duties to patients. As a result, a space where medical professionals are tasked to heal injured and sick people has become a site for policing and surveillance. This session was part of the Contemporary Issues in Health, Law, and Bioethics series hosted by Michele Bratcher Goodwin, SJD, LLM. Support provided by the Oswald DeN. Cammann Fund at Harvard University.

Guest Speaker:

• Ji Seon Song, JD, LLM
  Assistant Professor of Law, University of California, Irvine School of Law

Host:

• Michele Bratcher Goodwin, SJD, LLM
  Senior Lecturer, Harvard Medical School, Chancellor’s Professor of Law, University of California, Irvine Founding Director, Center for Biotechnology and Global Health Policy, University of California, Irvine School of Law

A conversation about the Supreme Court's blockbuster abortion decision, Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, and what comes next if Roe v. Wade is reversed—legally, medically, and politically. This session was part of the Contemporary Issues in Health, Law, and Bioethics series hosted by Michele Bratcher Goodwin, SJD, LLM. Support provided by the Oswald DeN. Cammann Fund at Harvard University.

Watch the event recording on our YouTube channel here.

Guest Speaker:

• Mary Ziegler, JD
  Daniel P.S. Paul Visiting Professor of Constitutional Law, Harvard Law School

Host:

• Michele Bratcher Goodwin, SJD, LLM
  Senior Lecturer, Harvard Medical School, Chancellor’s Professor of Law, University of California, Irvine Founding Director, Center for Biotechnology and Global Health Policy, University of California, Irvine School of Law

This session provided an overview of the ethical and workforce considerations that impact and influence abortion care provision. Conscientious provision and objection of abortion were discussed in addition to ambivalence and uncertainty with a specific focus on health service providers. This session was part of the Contemporary Issues in Health, Law, and Bioethics series hosted by Michele Bratcher Goodwin, SJD, LLM. Support provided by the Oswald DeN. Cammann Fund at Harvard University.

Watch the event recording on our YouTube channel here.

Guest Speaker:

• Monica McLemore, PhD, RN, FAAN
  Associate Professor, Family Health Care Nursing Department, University of California, San Francisco
  Clinician-Scientist, Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health
  Member, Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health

Host:

• Michele Bratcher Goodwin, SJD, LLM
  Senior Lecturer, Harvard Medical School, Chancellor’s Professor of Law, University of California, Irvine Founding Director, Center for Biotechnology and Global Health Policy, University of California, Irvine School of Law

Nobel Laureate Shinya Yamanaka presented "Recent Progress in iPS Cell Research and Application" on June 9, 2021. This forum launched Harvard's Annual Bioethics Conference (ABC). The annual conference included access to this forum and two additional days of programming. Support provided by the Oswald DeN. Cammann Fund at Harvard University. Please note, there is no video recording of this event available.

In 2006, Shinya Yamanaka discovered that adult somatic cells can be reprogrammed into an embryonic-like pluripotent state by delivering transcription factors. These reprogrammed cells, known as induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, have the potential to develop into every cell type in the body and are invaluable tools for disease modeling, drug screening, and cell therapy. iPS cells also provide an unprecedented opportunity for discovery in life science, and in Yamanaka’s lab today, researchers continue to use them to investigate the mechanisms for cell fate determination, the reprogramming process, and pluripotency. Yamanaka is the 2012 winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine.

Guest Speaker:

• Shinya Yamanaka, PhD

Yolonda Yvette Wilson, PhD is a 2019-2020 fellow at the National Humanities Center and a 2019-2020 Encore Public Voices fellow. She holds a PhD in Philosophy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research interests include bioethics, social and political philosophy, race theory, and feminist philosophy. She is broadly interested in the nature and limits of the state's obligations to rectify historic and continuing injustice, particularly in the realm of health care, and is developing an account of justice that articulates specific requirements for racial justice in health care at the end of life.

Watch the event recording on our YouTube channel here.

Guest Speaker:

• Yolonda Yvette Wilson, PhD

Personal protective equipment or PPE has been a major topic of discussion across the nation. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed major shortages of PPE and health care workers are being asked to take care of patients with what some would argue is inadequate protection. The guidelines set by the CDC have changed and recommendations have even gone so far as to approve bandannas as a means for respiratory protection. Some have argued that it is unethical for health care workers to not have adequate protection, while others think it's their duty, protected or not. Adding to this debate has been theft, hoarding and disparate distribution of these critical supplies. Panelists explored the ethics of PPE in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Watch the event recording on Petrie-Flom Center's YouTube channel here.

Panelists:

• Stephen P. Wood, ACNP-BC, MS
  Fellow in Bioethics, Center for Bioethics, Harvard Medical School
• Christine Mitchell, RN, MS, MTS, FAAN
  Executive Director, Center for Bioethics, Harvard Medical School
• Dr. Michael Mina, MD, PhD
  Assistant Professor, Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics, Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health

Moderator:

• Carmel Shachar, JD, MPH
  Executive Director, Petrie-Flom Center and Lecturer on Law, Harvard Law School

Justice is a foundational tenant in bioethics, yet the field of bioethics has not prioritized addressing structural racism and systemic inequalities deeply rooted in our system. The Center for Bioethics needs to lead the field in this movement toward equity in every aspect of human difference. Now is a crucial time for our community to direct our focus in affirming and building an anti-racist culture in our student and faculty recruiting, clinical care and consults, and in our research. This panel event—the first in a series of explorations—informed how the field of bioethics and the Center can better support anti-racism and health inequalities work and nurture diversity, and create practices of inclusion in the places we study, work, and teach in. Panelists shared their experiences and lead discussion about the work to be done at the Center and how our community can create a more just path forward. Please note, there is no video recording of this event available.

Panelists:

• LaShyra "Lash" Nolen, BS, HMS '23
• Matthew Riley III, MBE '19, MDiv
• Keona Wynne, MBE '20

Moderator:

• Bizu Gelaye, PhD, MPH