To be added to MEHP's events listserv, please contact lisa.bailey@pennmedicine.upenn.edu.
Events
Hybrid: 1402 Blockley Hall, 423 Guardian Drive (and virtual via Zoom)
Penn Bioethics Seminar Series (PBS): "Financialization and Health: The Hep C case and Beyond" led by Victor Roy, MD, PhD
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2025-02-18 12:00:00
2025-02-18 13:00:00
America/New_York
Penn Bioethics Seminar Series (PBS): "Financialization and Health: The Hep C case and Beyond" led by Victor Roy, MD, PhD
Financialization and Health: The Hep C case and Beyond
Victor Roy, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor, Family Medicine and Community Health
Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
How can we make sense of the rising role of financial actors and logics in the U.S. health system and its consequences? To answer this question, this talk will apply sociological analysis of so-called "financialization" in the broader economy to cases in health and raise questions about assets and ownership, value and valuation, and hegemonic knowledge practices. The talk will draw on his book-length project Capitalizing a Cure: How Finance Controls the Price and Value of Medicines (2023, University of California Press), which focused on pricing and valuation of curative hepatitis C medicines, and a co-authored perspective piece "The Financialization of Health in the United States" (2024, New England Journal of Medicine).
Lunch provided. Streaming available via Zoom.
Hybrid: 1402 Blockley Hall, 423 Guardian Drive (and virtual via Zoom)
Penn Medical Ethics
Hybrid: 1402 Blockley Hall, 423 Guardian Drive (and virtual via Zoom)
Penn Bioethics Seminar (PBS): "Embedding Ethics into Bioengineering Education" with Brit Shields, PhD
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2025-02-25 12:00:00
2025-02-25 13:00:00
America/New_York
Penn Bioethics Seminar (PBS): "Embedding Ethics into Bioengineering Education" with Brit Shields, PhD
Embedding Ethics into Bioengineering Education
Brit Shields, PhD
Senior Lecturer, Department of Bioengineering,
School of Engineering and Applied Science
University of Pennsylvania
This talk will foster a discussion on pedagogical strategies for developing ethics curricula tailored to bioengineering students. It will highlight the University of Pennsylvania’s Department of Bioengineering’s Engineering Ethics Initiative, which aims to embed ethics into core technical courses. This initiative is designed to prepare graduates for responsible leadership in industry and engineering practice by equipping them with the tools to identify and address societal concerns effectively. Within the context of their technical training, students gain discipline-specific knowledge and skills, including principles of bioethics, proactive ethical design frameworks, regulatory and legal considerations, funding structures, and awareness of unintended consequences, among others. The initiative is a collaboration involving interdisciplinary faculty and Engineering Ethics Fellows with expertise spanning Bioengineering, History and Sociology of Technology, and Legal Studies.
Professor Shields is a historian and sociologist of science, mathematics and technology. She researches and writes about the cultural history of scientific communities, institutions and ideas. Her work focuses on the profound reciprocal relationship between, on the one hand, science, mathematics and technology, and on the other hand, our society and cultural norms.
More detail to follow.
Lunch provided. Streaming available via Zoom.
Hybrid: 1402 Blockley Hall, 423 Guardian Drive (and virtual via Zoom)
Penn Medical Ethics
Colonial Penn Center Auditorium
HP/LDI Research Seminar: Bocar Bo, PhD, Assistant Professor of Economics, Duke University
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2025-02-27 12:00:00
2025-02-27 13:00:00
America/New_York
HP/LDI Research Seminar: Bocar Bo, PhD, Assistant Professor of Economics, Duke University
Bocar Ba, PhD, Assistant Professor, Economics, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences, Duke University
Topic: “Understanding Demand for Police Alternatives.”
Abstract: In a series of experiments, we present evidence of bipartisan public demand for police alternatives, contrasted with persistent policy resistance from key stakeholders. First, our survey
experiment demonstrates that introducing U.S. respondents to dontcallthepolice.com (DCTP),
a database of non-governmental emergency response options, significantly reduces reliance on
police for nonviolent situations. However, this effect does not extend to violent scenarios where
no police substitutes exist. Second, our follow-up survey reveals enduring impacts, including
heightened recall of the 988 hotline as an alternative during suicidal crises. Third, our field experiment and qualitative interviews find police resistance to embracing DCTP, despite
widespread public support for nonviolent police substitutes.
Bio: Dr. Bocar Ba is a labor economist and assistant professor at Duke University, who specialized in police accountability. His work takes a close look at where breakdowns happen in the criminal justice system, following cases from arrests to depositions. Using insight from labor economics literature, he seeks to understand police use of force, overall police officer behavior and what cities want from their local law enforcement. His research, funded by the Russell Sage Foundation and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Pipeline Grant, has been featured in the Journal of Labor Economics, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Urban Economics, and more.
Dr. Ba earned his bachelor’s in economics and finance at the Université du Québec à Montréal and master’s in economics at the University of British Columbia. He completed his Ph.D. in public policy at the University of Chicago in 2018.
Register to attend here: https://share.hsforms.com/1n7lAVdWqScCDhr6_tWxJQA5gwp1.
Colonial Penn Center Auditorium
Penn Medical Ethics
Hybrid: RCH B102AB, Richards Bldg., 3700 Hamilton Walk (and virtual via Zoom)
Research Ethics and Policy Series (REPS): "Ethical Considerations in Research with Older Adults" led by Emily Largent, JD, PhD, RN
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2025-03-11 12:00:00
2025-03-11 13:00:00
America/New_York
Research Ethics and Policy Series (REPS): "Ethical Considerations in Research with Older Adults" led by Emily Largent, JD, PhD, RN
Ethical Considerations in Research with Older Adults
Emily Largent, JD, PhD, RN
Chief, Division of Medical Ethics
Associate Professor of Medical Ethics & Health Policy
University of Pennsylvania
Many older adults experience fragmented, poor quality, and high-cost care that fails to address adequately their needs and those of their care partners. There is a clear need for evidence to support the adoption of interventions and services that improve their wellbeing and extend their independence as long as possible. Yet, even as the population ages, older adults continue to be underrepresented in research.
In this talk, we will identify various ethical and practical challenges that arise when including older adults in research. We will characterize why older adults can be more difficult to recruit and to retain, as well as ways to account for this. Further, though older adults are not necessarily vulnerable, many are. Sources of vulnerability can include cognitive impairment, which affects the ability to give informed consent, as well as being dependent on others to complete activities of daily living, which can affect the voluntariness of consent. We’ll discuss how to identify and address sources of vulnerability. We will also describe health disparities within the population of older adults and consider how this should inform research.
Lunch provided. Streaming available via Zoom.
Hybrid: RCH B102AB, Richards Bldg., 3700 Hamilton Walk (and virtual via Zoom)
Penn Medical Ethics
1104 Blockley Hall
Health Policy Research Seminar: Garth Graham, MD, MPH, FACC, Director and Global Head, Healthcare and Public Health, Google /YouTube
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2025-03-13 12:00:00
2025-03-13 13:00:00
America/New_York
Health Policy Research Seminar: Garth Graham, MD, MPH, FACC, Director and Global Head, Healthcare and Public Health, Google /YouTube
1104 Blockley Hall
Penn Medical Ethics
1104 Blockley Hall (Note: Virtual attendees can join by accessing this link: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/95353951407.)
Health Policy Research Seminar: William Shrank, MD, Venture Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, Bio + Health Team
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2025-03-20 12:00:00
2025-03-20 13:00:00
America/New_York
Health Policy Research Seminar: William Shrank, MD, Venture Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, Bio + Health Team
Topic: "Cell and Gene Therapy - the Next Frontier in Value-Based Care."
Bio: Dr. Shrank has been a venture partner to the Bio + Health team of Andreessen Horowitz, a private venture capital firm since January 2023. He previously served as Chief Medical Officer of Humana Inc., a leading care delivery and health plan administration company, from April 2019 to August 2022. In this role, his responsibilities included implementing Humana’s integrated care delivery strategy, with an emphasis on advancing the company’s clinical capabilities and core objective of improving the health outcomes of its members. Prior to joining Humana, Dr. Shrank served as Chief Medical Officer, Insurance Services Division, of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) from April 2016 to February 2019. From 2013 to 2016, Dr. Shrank held several positions with CVS Health Corporation, including Senior Vice President, Chief Scientific Officer, and Chief Medical Officer of Provider Innovation. He also previously worked for the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, part of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), as Director, Research and Rapid-Cycle Evaluation Group. Dr. Shrank began his career as a practicing physician with Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Mass. and as an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. He received his B.A. in Psychology from Brown University and an M.D. from Cornell University Medical College. He also holds a M.S. in Health Services from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Abstract: New cell and gene therapy technology offers the potential to cure conditions that can massively transform the lives of eligible patients. And they generally cost millions of dollars each. Our highly fragmented system of paying for care threatens access to innovative therapies that offer extraordinary benefit to patients and value to society. Dr Shrank will describe the challenges we face as a system in affordably providing access to these therapies and outline market solutions to encourage access.
1104 Blockley Hall (Note: Virtual attendees can join by accessing this link: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/95353951407.)
Penn Medical Ethics
Hybrid: 1402 Blockley Hall, 423 Guardian Drive (and virtual via Zoom)
Penn Bioethics Seminar Series (PBS): "Normothermic Regional Perfusion and the Dead Donor Rule. Can NRP Proponents Avoid Controversy?" led by Jake Greenblum, PhD and Tim Aylsworth, PhD
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2025-03-25 12:00:00
2025-03-25 13:00:00
America/New_York
Penn Bioethics Seminar Series (PBS): "Normothermic Regional Perfusion and the Dead Donor Rule. Can NRP Proponents Avoid Controversy?" led by Jake Greenblum, PhD and Tim Aylsworth, PhD
Normothermic Regional Perfusion and the Dead Donor Rule. Can NRP Proponents Avoid Controversy?
Jake Greenblum, PhD
Clinical Ethicist, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
Tim Aylsworth, PhD
Associate Professor of Philosophy, Florida International University
In this presentation, we review what normothermic regional perfusion (NRP) is and the main debate around it concerning the ethical standard known as the dead donor rule (DDR), with opponents arguing that NRP violates the DDR, and many proponents denying this. As we highlight, both proponents and opponents alike assume the legitimacy of the DDR, an assumption we label “traditional.” We maintain that to best respond to opponents in this debate, traditional proponents must make use of the distinction between legal and biological death. However, unfortunately for proponents, making this distinction also calls into question the soundness of the DDR itself, something most proponents wish to avoid.
Lunch provided. Streaming available via Zoom.
Hybrid: 1402 Blockley Hall, 423 Guardian Drive (and virtual via Zoom)
Penn Medical Ethics
1104 Blockley Hall
Health Policy Research Seminar: Ravi Gupta, MD, Assistant Professor of General Internal Medicine, Johns Hopkins University
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2025-04-03 12:00:00
2025-04-03 13:00:00
America/New_York
Health Policy Research Seminar: Ravi Gupta, MD, Assistant Professor of General Internal Medicine, Johns Hopkins University
1104 Blockley Hall
Penn Medical Ethics
Hybrid: 1402 Blockley Hall, 423 Guardian Drive (and virtual via Zoom)
Penn Bioethics Seminar Series (PBS): "Defining Health Equity: Beyond Disparitarian and Derivative Approaches" led by Doug MacKay, PhD
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2025-04-08 12:00:00
2025-04-08 13:00:00
America/New_York
Penn Bioethics Seminar Series (PBS): "Defining Health Equity: Beyond Disparitarian and Derivative Approaches" led by Doug MacKay, PhD
Defining Health Equity: Beyond Disparitarian and Derivative Approaches
Douglas MacKay, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Public Policy
University of North Carolina
The concept of health equity (and its inverse, health inequity) is often invoked by public health policymakers and scholars to justify government action. Because health equity is so central to the operations of public health agencies, its meaning is highly consequential for public health policy. In this paper, Dr. MacKay first identifies challenges with two prominent approaches to identifying health inequities, disparitarian approaches, which define health inequities as unfair health disparities among groups, and derivative approaches, which define health inequities as health outcomes resulting from injustice. Dr. MacKay then offers a new framework for identifying health inequities and outlines the justificatory burdens public health scholars and policymakers must discharge to show that specific health outcomes are inequitable.
Lunch provided. Streaming available via Zoom.
Hybrid: 1402 Blockley Hall, 423 Guardian Drive (and virtual via Zoom)
Penn Medical Ethics
1104 Blockley Hall
Health Policy Research Seminar: Stella Yi, PhD, MPH, Associate Professor of Population Health, NYU
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2025-04-10 12:00:00
2025-04-10 13:00:00
America/New_York
Health Policy Research Seminar: Stella Yi, PhD, MPH, Associate Professor of Population Health, NYU
1104 Blockley Hall
Penn Medical Ethics