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Events
Virtual Penn Bioethics Seminar (PBS): "Research Ethicists Work Beyond the IRB to Integrate Justice-Based Considerations"- Emma Tumilty, PhD / Elise Smith, PhD
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2024-09-24 12:00:00
2024-09-24 13:00:00
America/New_York
Virtual Penn Bioethics Seminar (PBS): "Research Ethicists Work Beyond the IRB to Integrate Justice-Based Considerations"- Emma Tumilty, PhD / Elise Smith, PhD
Research Ethicists Work Beyond the IRB to Integrate Justice-Based Considerations
Emma Tumilty, PhD
Director of Graduate Studies, Institute for Bioethics and Health Humanities
University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston
Elise Smith, PhD
Assistant Professor in the Department of Bioethics and Health Humanities
University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston
Justice-based issues and community concerns are central to research ethics. Although the research ethics literature highlights how Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) should address certain types of justice concerns, in practice significant limitations hinder meaningful changes to protocols and ensuing research practices. In this presentation, we argue that greater attention should be paid to what research ethicists can do upstream that is effective but presently underutilized. Based on the accumulated experience of the authors in research ethics consultation work in a Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) Institution, we have found three alternative spaces that show more promise for providing justice-based outcomes. We will compare these three spaces to the IRB process and highlight how they allow for access to a broader set of options to integrate justice and community concerns. We conclude by developing research ethics consultation evaluation practices that can assess downstream implications of justice-based interventions.
Penn Medical Ethics
1104 Blockley Hall
Health Policy Research Seminar: Jetson Jeder-Luis, PhD, Assistant Professor of Markets, Public Policy, and Law, Boston University
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2024-09-26 12:00:00
2024-09-26 13:00:00
America/New_York
Health Policy Research Seminar: Jetson Jeder-Luis, PhD, Assistant Professor of Markets, Public Policy, and Law, Boston University
Event Details:
Date: Thursday, September 26th
Time: 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Location: 1104 Blockley Hall (Note: Virtual attendees can join by accessing this link: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/95353951407.)
Topic: "Competition and Fraud in Health Care."
Abstract: Governments rely on private firms to provide public services such as health care, and these firms face incentives to commit fraud. While a growing literature has addressed policy solutions to combat existing frauds, less attention has been paid to the relationship between the industrial organization of the markets for providing these services and the opportunities to commit fraud. In this paper, we consider the role of competition in promoting or inhibiting fraud, with the Medicare durable medical equipment (DME) market as an example. Medicare moved from a regime of regulated prices to one in which firms compete to supply goods at lower prices. In theory, competition can either promote or inhibit fraud. Using new data on enforcement and prescribing behavior, we identify suspicious and fraudulent providers of DME. We show that increased competition and lower prices appears to benefit suspicious firms over legitimate ones.
Jetson Leder-Luis is an assistant professor at Boston University and a Faculty Research Fellow at the NBER. His research focuses on fraud, misreporting, and overbilling in public expenditures, particularly within the Medicare program, as well as the impact of these behaviors on public spending and patient health outcomes. He is also interested in the detection and deterrence of fraud and corruption, as well as the statistical properties of misreported data. His work sits at the intersection of public economics, political economy, health economics, and law and economics.
1104 Blockley Hall
Penn Medical Ethics
Hybrid: 1402 Blockley Hall, 423 Guardian Drive (and virtual via Zoom)
Virtual lecture: "Doctor, Will You Pray for Me?: Medicine, Chaplains and Healing the Whole Person" led by Robert Klitzman, MD
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2024-10-08 12:00:00
2024-10-08 13:00:00
America/New_York
Virtual lecture: "Doctor, Will You Pray for Me?: Medicine, Chaplains and Healing the Whole Person" led by Robert Klitzman, MD
Doctor, Will You Pray for Me?: Medicine, Chaplains and Healing the Whole Person
Robert Klitzman, MD
Professor of Psychiatry
Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons
Joseph Mailman School of Public Health
Director, Online and In-person Masters of Bioethics Program
Columbia University
Given growing political and religious polarization in our country, countless patients, family members, health care providers and others struggle with existential, spiritual and religious quandaries, and with finding sources of meaning, purpose, connection and hope. But how do they do so?
This talk draws on in-depth research with patients, physicians and hospital chaplains to explore these realms, revealing how chaplains play critical roles, especially in fragmented health care systems, aiding patients, as well as providers facing moral distress, but are often unappreciated and marginalized.
This talk examines these challenges and ways we can best address patients' and providers' needs.
Hybrid: 1402 Blockley Hall, 423 Guardian Drive (and virtual via Zoom)
Penn Medical Ethics
Hybrid: RCH B102AB, Richards Bldg., 3700 Hamilton Walk (and virtual via Zoom)
Hybrid -Research Ethics and Policy Series (REPS): "We the Scientists: How the Rise of Patient-Led Research is Changing Medicine" - Amy Dockser Marcus
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2024-10-09 12:00:00
2024-10-09 13:00:00
America/New_York
Hybrid -Research Ethics and Policy Series (REPS): "We the Scientists: How the Rise of Patient-Led Research is Changing Medicine" - Amy Dockser Marcus
Book Talk -We the Scientists: How the Rise of Patient-Led Research is Changing Medicine
Amy Dockser Marcus
Author
Health & Science Reporter | The Wall Street Journal
Patients are no longer leaving science to the scientists. They are collecting and analyzing their own medical data, using the internet to find and connect online with other groups, and conducting their own research projects. Patient-led research plays an important and expanding role in the search for new therapies, particularly in diseases that are rare or overlooked by the medical and business communities. Amy Dockser Marcus, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the Wall Street Journal, spent years following a group of parents and scientists that worked together to develop a drug to treat a fatal and rare genetic disease. She will talk about the findings in her new book, We the Scientists, the rise of citizen science, and the ethical, social, and scientific challenges that emerge when patients, families, clinicians, and scientists set out to work as partners in the search for cures.
Amy Dockser Marcus, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the Wall Street Journal, spent years following a group of parents and scientists that worked together to develop a drug to treat a fatal and rare genetic disease. She will talk about the findings in her new book, We the Scientists, the rise of citizen science, and the ethical, social, and scientific challenges that emerge when patients, families, clinicians, and scientists set out to work as partners in the search for cures.
Lunch provided. Streaming available via Zoom.
Hybrid: RCH B102AB, Richards Bldg., 3700 Hamilton Walk (and virtual via Zoom)
Penn Medical Ethics
Hybrid
Advancing Trust in Science: Institutional Obligations to Promote Research Integrity
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2024-10-10 08:00:00
2024-10-10 16:30:00
America/New_York
Advancing Trust in Science: Institutional Obligations to Promote Research Integrity
Hosted by the Department of Medical Ethics & Health Policy and the Institute for Translational Medicine & Therapeutics, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine
Location:
Widener Lecture Hall
University of Pennsylvania Museum
3260 South Street Philadelphia, PA 19104
(Or Zoom)
Registration is required. RSVP here
Description:
Several high-profile examples of research misconduct, defined as fabrication, falsification, and plagiarism, have recently come to light, amidst a moment of already precarious and waning public trust in science. The issues are not new, although there are now novel tools for identifying misconduct, proliferating platforms for discussing allegations and publicizing concerns, and growing unease about politically motivated misconduct allegations. In addition, the US Department of Health and Human Services Office of Research Integrity recently proposed new regulations to revise the Public Health Service Policies on Research Misconduct, with a final rule expected this year. Against this churning backdrop, how should institutional stakeholders – including universities and publishers – address concerns about research misconduct, from prevention to response? How should institutions build and maintain a culture of scientific integrity? When problems arise, how should they ensure procedural protections for those accused of misconduct, protect accusers from retaliation, conduct comprehensive investigations, facilitate rapid resolution, and promote transparency? Should responses differ when institutional leaders are accused of misconduct or when misconduct arises outside the health sciences? This symposium, which will be published in an open access special issue of the Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics in Spring 2025, will present commentaries on these issues and others from leading experts in ethics and law, those with experience identifying research misconduct, and those sharing relevant stakeholder perspectives, including researchers, academic leadership, and journal editors and publishers.
Hybrid
Penn Medical Ethics
1104 Blockley Hall
Health Policy Research Seminar: Corinne Low, PhD, Associate Professor of Business Economics and Public Policy, University of Penn
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2024-10-10 12:00:00
2024-10-10 13:00:00
America/New_York
Health Policy Research Seminar: Corinne Low, PhD, Associate Professor of Business Economics and Public Policy, University of Penn
Event Details:
Topic: "Family Planning Now and Later: Infertility Fears and Contraception Take-Up."
Additional Info: Lunch will be served.
Bio: Corinne Low is an Associate Professor of Business Economics and Public Policy at the Wharton School, where she teaches Economics of Diversity and Discrimination, one of Wharton’s highest rated classes. Her research focuses on the economics of gender and discrimination and has been published in top journals such as the American Economic Review, Quarterly Journal of Economics, and Journal of Political Economy. She received her Ph.D. in Economics from Columbia University, her B.S. in Economics and Public Policy from Duke University, and formerly worked for McKinsey and Company. Outside of work, she is the co-founder and volunteer executive director for Open Hearts Initiative, a New York City based non-profit addressing the homelessness crisis.
Abstract: Early fertility is a key barrier to female human capital attainment in sub-Saharan Africa, yet contraceptive take-up remains puzzlingly low, even among educated populations with healthcare access. We study a barrier to hormonal contraceptive uptake that has not been causally tested: the persistent (incorrect) belief that these contraceptives cause later infertility. This belief creates a perceived tradeoff between current and future reproductive control. We use a randomized controlled trial with female undergraduates at the flagship university in Zambia to test two interventions to increase contraceptive use. Despite high rates of sexual activity, low rates of condom-use, and near zero desire for current pregnancy, only 5% of this population uses hormonal contraceptives at baseline. Providing a non-coercive conditional cash transfer to visit a local clinic only temporarily increases contraceptive use. However, pairing this transfer with information addressing fears that contraceptives cause infertility has a larger initial effect and persistently increases take-up over 6 months. This treatment reduces beliefs that contraceptives cause infertility and leads to the take-up of longer-lasting contraceptives. Compliers are more likely to cite fear of infertility as the reason for not using contraceptives at baseline. Eliminating the belief that contraceptives cause infertility would more than triple contraceptive use.
1104 Blockley Hall
Penn Medical Ethics
1104 Blockley Hall
Health Policy Research Seminar: Kelly Yang, PhD, MA, Assistant Professor of Business Economics and Public Policy, Indiana University
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2024-10-24 12:00:00
2024-10-24 13:00:00
America/New_York
Health Policy Research Seminar: Kelly Yang, PhD, MA, Assistant Professor of Business Economics and Public Policy, Indiana University
Event Details:
Date: Thursday, October 24th
Time: 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Location: 1104 Blockley Hall (Note: Virtual attendees can join by accessing this link: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/95353951407.)
Topic: "Experience Effects and Technology Adoption: Evidence from Aortic Valve Replacement."
Lunch will be served. Please view here for the full Fall 2024/Spring 2025 Health Policy Research Seminar Series Schedule.
Bio: Dr. Kelly Kaili Yang is an Assistant Professor of Business Economics and Public Policy at the Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. She received her PhD in Economics from Duke University. Her research interests include Industrial Organization, Health Economics, and International Trade, with a focus on technology adoption and quality upgrading.
Abstract: There have been concerted efforts in the medical profession to centralize certain surgical procedures in hopes that patients can benefit from treatment at hospitals with extensive experience or recent practice. In 2012, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) introduced minimum volume requirements that hospitals must satisfy to receive reimbursement for a new surgical procedure, transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). I examine the desirability of this regulation and the trade-offs that CMS faces between enhanced learning-by-doing, reduced patient access to hospitals offering TAVR, and fixed adoption costs. Using Medicare claims data, I find that doubling hospital experience reduces TAVR in-hospital mortality by one-sixth. I then develop and estimate a dynamic industry equilibrium model with learning-by-doing, patient choice, and hospital TAVR adoption. Counterfactual simulation shows that removing the policy restriction would have increased adoptions at hospitals that are relatively less desirable to patients. Further, this small access gain would be offset by reduced learning-by-doing and higher mortality. Overall, relative to the free-adoption counterfactual, the current Medicare policy achieves the same technology utilization and total consumer welfare with 13% lower fixed costs, thus improving social welfare.
1104 Blockley Hall
Penn Medical Ethics
1104 Blockley Hall
Health Policy Research Seminar: Ashwin Nathan, MD, MS, Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of Penn
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2024-11-07 12:00:00
2024-11-07 13:00:00
America/New_York
Health Policy Research Seminar: Ashwin Nathan, MD, MS, Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of Penn
1104 Blockley Hall
Penn Medical Ethics
Hybrid: RCH B102AB, Richards Bldg., 3700 Hamilton Walk (and virtual via Zoom)
Hybrid -Research Ethics and Policy Series (REPS): "Pediatric Vaccine Research" - Paul A. Offit, MD
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2024-11-13 12:00:00
2024-11-13 13:00:00
America/New_York
Hybrid -Research Ethics and Policy Series (REPS): "Pediatric Vaccine Research" - Paul A. Offit, MD
Pediatric Vaccine Research
Paul A. Offit, MD
Director of the Vaccine Education Center
Professor of pediatrics in the Division of Infectious Diseases
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Paul A. Offit, MD, is Director of the Vaccine Education Center and professor of pediatrics in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. He is the Maurice R. Hilleman Professor of Vaccinology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Offit is an internationally recognized expert in the fields of virology and immunology, and was a member of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He is a member of the Food and Drug Administration Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, and a founding advisory board member of the Autism Science Foundation and the Foundation for Vaccine Research, a member of the Institute of Medicine and co-editor of the foremost vaccine text, Vaccines.
More detail to follow.
Lunch provided. Streaming available via Zoom.
Hybrid: RCH B102AB, Richards Bldg., 3700 Hamilton Walk (and virtual via Zoom)
Penn Medical Ethics
1104 Blockley Hall
HP/LDI Research Seminar: Edward Okeke, PhD, MD, Senior Economist; Professor of Policy Analysis, Pardee RAND Graduate School
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2024-11-14 12:00:00
2024-11-14 13:00:00
America/New_York
HP/LDI Research Seminar: Edward Okeke, PhD, MD, Senior Economist; Professor of Policy Analysis, Pardee RAND Graduate School
1104 Blockley Hall
Penn Medical Ethics