Events
3600 Civic Center Blvd., 8-031 (hybrid)
Penn Bioethics Seminar (PBS): "Public Health, Ethics, and Repetitive Brain Trauma in Youth Sports" - Kathleen Bachynski, PhD, MPH
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2026-11-17 12:00:00
2026-11-17 13:00:00
America/New_York
Penn Bioethics Seminar (PBS): "Public Health, Ethics, and Repetitive Brain Trauma in Youth Sports" - Kathleen Bachynski, PhD, MPH
Public Health, Ethics, and Repetitive Brain Trauma in Youth Sports
Kathleen Bachynski, PhD, MPH
Associate Professor, Public Health
Muhlenberg College
Many popular youth sports in the United States involve exposure to repetitive brain trauma, raising major ethical challenges. Kathleen Bachynski will discuss youth tackle football as a case study, drawing on research from her book No Game for Boys to Play: The History of Youth Football and the Origins of a Public Health Crisis. When and how can foreseeable brain injury risks in sports be ethically justified, and what are our goals for youth sports programs?
3600 Civic Center Blvd., 8-031 (hybrid)
Penn Medical Ethics
VIRTUAL, via Zoom
Penn Bioethics Seminar (PBS): "A Call to Decommodify Health Care" - Kevin Fiscella, MD, MPH
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2026-12-01 12:00:00
2026-12-01 13:00:00
America/New_York
Penn Bioethics Seminar (PBS): "A Call to Decommodify Health Care" - Kevin Fiscella, MD, MPH
A Call to Decommodify Health Care
Kevin Fiscella, MD, MPH
Professor, Family Medicine
Co-Director, Research Division
Department of Family Medicine
University of Rochester
Twenty-five years ago, bioethicist Edmund Pellegrino warned against treating health care as a commodity. Today, corporatization, consolidation, the shift from physician-owned practices to physician-employed practices, and AI increasingly shape American medicine through commodification and dehumanization that undermine therapeutic relationships, equitable access, health and flourishing. Decommodification grounds health care as a common good and human right, while emphasizing whole-person care and relationships that support autonomy, competence, and relatedness based on the principle of proportionate universalism. Using a systems change framework, Dr. Fiscella organizes decommodification strategies across six interdependent conditions: mental models, policies, practices, resource flows, power dynamics, and relationships. Priorities include aligning payment with health and well-being, strengthening primary care and community partnerships, addressing corporate power, and expanding patient participation in governance. Health professionals, patients, communities, and partners beyond health care must take concerted, sustained action to place dignity, equity, and human potential at the center of care.
Streaming available via Zoom.
VIRTUAL, via Zoom
Penn Medical Ethics
CCB 08-031, 8th Floor, 3600 Civic Center Blvd. (Note: Virtual attendees can join by accessing this link: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/95740259034.)
Health Policy Research Seminar: Maggie Lowenstein, MD, MSHP
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2026-12-03 10:00:00
2026-12-03 12:00:00
America/New_York
Health Policy Research Seminar: Maggie Lowenstein, MD, MSHP
"Beyond Overdose: Shifting Consequences of the Opioid Crisis in the Face of a Dynamic Drug Supply."
U.S. overdose deaths have declined by approximately 40% from their 2023 peak, marking the largest reduction in decades. Yet these gains have been uneven, and the overdose crisis continues to evolve as the illicit drug supply changes, including increasing adulteration of fentanyl with sedatives such as xylazine and, more recently, medetomidine.Drawing on national mortality data and clinical research from Philadelphia, an epicenter of the U.S. opioid epidemic, this talk will highlight emerging trends in drug adulterants, their associated health complications, and the implications for health care delivery. Dr. Lowenstein will conclude with a discussion of health system and policy strategies to address these challenges, as well as opportunities to leverage acute care encounters to support long-term recovery and sustained health outcomes.
Margaret (Maggie) Lowenstein, MD, MSHP, is a general internist, addiction medicine physician, and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine. Dr. Lowenstein’s research focuses on novel strategies for implementing evidence-based treatment and harm reduction interventions for opioid and other substance use disorders. She is interested in the delivery of substance use care in general medical settings as well as developing and studying low-barrier treatment models for substance use disorder. Dr. Lowenstein also co-chairs the Opioid Use Disorder Workgroup of the Penn Medicine Opioid Task Force and collaborates with partners in Philadelphia to disseminate best practices for opioid use disorder care. She currently practices integrated addiction medicine and primary care at the University of Pennsylvania and attends on Penn’s inpatient addiction medicine consult service. Dr. Lowenstein received her undergraduate degree at Williams College, a Master’s degree in Biology and Biological Anthropology at the University of Cambridge as a Herchel Smith Fellow, and her medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. She completed her residency training in internal medicine at the University of California, San Francisco in the UCSF primary care program and then a fellowship in health policy with the National Clinicians Scholars Program at Penn.
CCB 08-031, 8th Floor, 3600 Civic Center Blvd. (Note: Virtual attendees can join by accessing this link: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/95740259034.)
Penn Medical Ethics
3600 Civic Center Blvd., 6-031 (Hybrid)
Research Ethics & Policy Series (REPS): "Medical Communication and the Misinformed Patient" - Anne Cappola, MD, ScM
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2026-12-08 12:00:00
2026-12-08 13:00:00
America/New_York
Research Ethics & Policy Series (REPS): "Medical Communication and the Misinformed Patient" - Anne Cappola, MD, ScM
Medical Communication and the Misinformed Patient
Anne Cappola, MD, ScM
Professor of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism
Executive Director, Penn Medical Communication Research Institute (PMCRI)
Director of Clinical Research, Department of Medicine
Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania
Physicians remain among the most trusted sources of health information, creating an important opportunity to address misconceptions and strengthen informed decision-making. Uptake of accurate information can establish a protective knowledge framework that increases resilience to future misinformation. Clinicians should understand evidence-based communication strategies, including inoculation, debunking, forewarning, bypassing, and foreclosing, while recognizing the limitations of each approach. Evidence-based techniques for effective clinician-patient communication in ambulatory and urgent situations will be discussed. Promoting confidence in science and strengthening patients’ critical evaluation skills can foster long-term resistance to misinformation and support better health outcomes.
Registration required; Lunch provided.
Streaming available via Zoom.
3600 Civic Center Blvd., 6-031 (Hybrid)
Penn Medical Ethics
Colonial Penn Center Auditorium, 3641 Locust Walk, Philadelphia, PA
HP X LDI Research Seminar: Rachel Sachs, JD, MPH
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2026-12-15 12:00:00
2026-12-15 13:00:00
America/New_York
HP X LDI Research Seminar: Rachel Sachs, JD, MPH
Topic: "Indirectly Financing the Safety Net: The Legal Architecture of the 340B Program."
The already-fragile American health care safety net is being supported by a program that was never intended to bear its weight. At its establishment in 1992, the federal 340B prescription drug discount program was modestly created to enable safety net health care entities to purchase prescription drugs for their patients at discounted prices, stretching their scarce resources further. But the 340B program has now grown to become one of the biggest programs in health law. In 2025, 340B covered entities purchased $100 billion in drugs under the program, a number which is only expected to grow. The 340B program is not directly financed by the government but is instead indirectly financed through its legal structure, enabling covered entities to retain the difference between the low acquisition price of their drugs and higher rates at which they are reimbursed by insurers for providing those drugs. The program’s indirect financing structure creates both positive and concerning incentives for the program’s interactions with health law issues including prescription drug pricing, hospital and health system consolidation, rural health sustainability, the provision of uncompensated care, and more. Importantly, the legal and institutional structures of the program create a fundamental instability in its operations: Congressional gridlock, the executive branch’s lack of substantive rulemaking authority over the program, and partial federal preemption have left key questions of program administration unresolved or in the hands of regulated parties. Ongoing legal developments including in Medicare rulemaking and litigation brought by pharmaceutical companies have the potential to limit the availability of 340B discounts, potentially addressing some of the program’s concerning incentives but potentially also leading to closures of health care safety net entities. In identifying this set of emerging issues, this talk lays out a research and policy engagement agenda for academics and policymakers moving forward and invites future work in this area.
Colonial Penn Center Auditorium, 3641 Locust Walk, Philadelphia, PA
Penn Medical Ethics
To be added to MEHP's events listserv, please contact lisa.bailey@pennmedicine.upenn.edu.