Events
Hybrid: 1402 Blockley Hall, 423 Guardian Drive (and virtual via Zoom)
Hybrid-Penn Bioethics Seminar Series (PBS): "Talking Placebos: New Concerns About Placebo Effects in Psychiatry" - Kevin P. Kennedy, MD
Learn More
2025-10-28 12:00:00
2025-10-28 13:00:00
America/New_York
Hybrid-Penn Bioethics Seminar Series (PBS): "Talking Placebos: New Concerns About Placebo Effects in Psychiatry" - Kevin P. Kennedy, MD
Talking Placebos: New Concerns About Placebo Effects in Psychiatry
Kevin Kennedy, MD
Psychiatrist, Mental Health Clinic Chrome Team
Corporal Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center, Philadelphia
Research on placebo effects in psychiatry has focused on the drug-placebo difference for antidepressants in depression. There has been little discussion of the many widely-used psychiatric treatments that do not outperform placebo in clinical trials or meta-analyses. In clinical practice, benefit from these treatments can only be attributable to a placebo response. This talk examines the clinical and ethical implication of major placebo-level treatments in psychiatry. We will then apply this perspective to novel psychiatric treatments like psychedelics and brain stimulation.
Dr. Kennedy is interested in evaluating the quality of evidence supporting the pharmacological treatment of depression, with a particular interest in patients with medical and psychiatric comorbidities, the use of psychiatric polypharmacy, and augmentation strategies.
Registration required; please feel free to bring lunch
Streaming available via Zoom.
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): Ethical Dimensions of Implanted Brain-Computer Interface (iBCI) Research - Anna Wexler, PhD
Learn More
2025-11-11 12:00:00
2025-11-11 13:00:00
America/New_York
Hybrid-Research Ethics and Policy Series (REPS): Ethical Dimensions of Implanted Brain-Computer Interface (iBCI) Research - Anna Wexler, PhD
Ethical Dimensions of Implanted Brain-Computer Interface (iBCI) Research
Anna Wexler, PhD
Assistant Professor of Medical Ethics and Health Policy
perelman school of medicine | University of Pennsylvania
Recent years have seen significant progress in brain-computer interfaces (iBCIs), which are systems that record neural signals from the brain and translate them into output. Once the domain of science fiction, iBCIs have enabled individuals with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and spinal cord injuries to interact with computers, produce speech, and control robotic limbs—just by using their thoughts. Yet the emergence of iBCIs as a novel class of therapeutics raises a distinct set of ethical challenges. This talk will provide an overview of recent advances in iBCI research and highlight key ethical issues, such as device abandonment and post-trial responsibilities, privacy of neural data, and the increasingly blurred lines between medical and non-medical applications.
Registration Required. Lunch provided.
Streaming available via Zoom.
Hybrid: RCH B102AB, Richards Bldg., 3700 Hamilton Walk (and virtual via Zoom)
Penn Medical Ethics
1104 Blockley Hall (Note: Virtual attendees can join by accessing this link: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/95740259034.)
Health Policy Research Seminar: Lisa Harnack, DrPH, RD, MPH, Mayo Professor and Division Head of Epidemiology & Community Health, University of Minnesota
Learn More
2025-11-13 10:00:00
2025-11-13 11:00:00
America/New_York
Health Policy Research Seminar: Lisa Harnack, DrPH, RD, MPH, Mayo Professor and Division Head of Epidemiology & Community Health, University of Minnesota
This event is co-sponsored with the The Center for Food and Nutrition Policy.
Topic: "Turning Data into Decisions: Nutrition Regulatory Science Research."
About the Talk: Research that informs food and nutrition policies and regulations is critical yet challenging to carry out. Dr. Harnack will share her experience identifying research questions and designing studies important to nutrition policy and regulatory decision making. She will also discuss approaches to disseminating research findings so they reach decision makers and share strategies for overcoming common barriers researchers face in carrying out nutrition regulatory science work.
Lisa Harnack is a public health nutrition expert whose research strengthens the scientific evidence underpinning nutrition policies, programs, and practices. She led the first experimental trial evaluating whether placing calorie information on restaurant menus influences meal choices and consumption. Findings from this study have been cited in more than 30 domestic and international policy-related documents and reports, including the FDA’s code of regulation for calorie labeling on restaurant menus.
More recently, Dr. Harnack conducted the first experimental trials assessing food purchase restrictions on sugary foods as a strategy to improve family nutrition within the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Her findings continue to inform ongoing policy discussions on potential program changes. She also authored a CDC-commissioned study identifying sources of sodium in the American diet, which revealed that 71% of sodium intake comes from salt and other sodium compounds added during commercial food processing. This research carries regulatory implications, as the FDA has indicated it may reconsider the Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) status of salt if voluntary sodium reduction efforts prove insufficient.
In addition to her research, Dr. Harnack directs the University of Minnesota Nutrition Coordinating Center (NCC). The NCC developed, maintains, and supports two widely used dietary assessment tools: the Nutrition Data System for Research (NDSR) and the NCC Food and Nutrient Database. NDSR is used in research at over 100 institutions—including most major research universities as well as government agencies such as the NIH and NASA. The NCC Food and Nutrient Database is also licensed to support food frequency questionnaires, such as the NIH Diet History Questionnaire, and consumer diet-tracking applications.
1104 Blockley Hall (Note: Virtual attendees can join by accessing this link: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/95740259034.)
Penn Medical Ethics
Virtual, via Zoom
Virtual-Penn Bioethics Seminar Series (PBS): "The Ethics of Using Coercion to Achieve Public Health Aims" - Maxwell J. Smith, PhD
Learn More
2025-11-25 12:00:00
2025-11-25 13:00:00
America/New_York
Virtual-Penn Bioethics Seminar Series (PBS): "The Ethics of Using Coercion to Achieve Public Health Aims" - Maxwell J. Smith, PhD
The Ethics of Using Coercion to Achieve Public Health Aims
Maxwell J. Smith, PhD
Associate Professor
CIHR Applied Public Health Chair in Ethics and Health Emergencies
Western University - Canada
Measures used in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, like lockdowns, vaccine mandates, and isolation and quarantine, were commonly characterized as 'coercive'. For some, this was akin to calling such measures bad or wrong. For others, it meant such measures warranted greater ethical scrutiny and stronger ethical justification. Finally, some simply disagreed that such measures were coercive. So, what does it mean for a public health measure to count as coercive, and when, if ever, is coercion ethically justified to achieve public health aims?
This presentation helps to answer these questions by examining prominent philosophical accounts of coercion and bringing them to bear on public health activities, as well as by reporting results from a scoping review of how coercion is defined in the public health literature. It concludes by identifying key ways in which public health activities complicate conventional thinking about coercion, suggesting profitable areas for future research.
Virtual, via Zoom
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): "What Makes Clinical Research Ethical": A Twenty-Five Year Journey and Look to the Future - Christine Grady, MSN, PhD
Learn More
2025-12-09 12:00:00
2025-12-09 13:00:00
America/New_York
Hybrid-Research Ethics and Policy Series (REPS): "What Makes Clinical Research Ethical": A Twenty-Five Year Journey and Look to the Future - Christine Grady, MSN, PhD
"What Makes Clinical Research Ethical": A Twenty-Five Year Journey and Look to the Future
Christine Grady, MSN, PhD
Former Chair, Department of Bioethics,
NIH Clinical Center
Recognizing some uncertainty about the ethics of clinical research and differences in interpretation and implementation of existing guidance, 25 years ago we developed a framework to help investigators, reviewers, and interested others design, implement, and evaluate ethical clinical research. Our framework, consisting initially of 7 and later 8 principles, resonated with many around the globe.
Since then, the framework has been used, debated, and cited in academic publications, national guidelines, presentations, and discussions across a wide spectrum of clinical research. In this presentation, Dr. Grady will discuss the origins of the framework, its contents and elements, how it has been used, some challenges and where more work could be useful.
Dr. Grady has published widely in the biomedical and bioethics literature and authored or edited several books, including The Oxford Textbook of Clinical Research Ethics. Her work is known internationally, and she has lectured widely on ethical issues in clinical research and clinical care, HIV disease, and nursing.
Registration Required. Lunch provided.
Streaming available via Zoom.
Hybrid: RCH B102AB, Richards Bldg., 3700 Hamilton Walk (and virtual via Zoom)
Penn Medical Ethics
To be added to MEHP's events listserv, please contact lisa.bailey@pennmedicine.upenn.edu.