Description:

The Master of Arts in Medical Humanities & Bioethics Program

Presents

A Montgomery Lecture

With

Sydney A. Halpern, PhD
Professor Emerita, University of Illinois at Chicago 
Lecturer, Medical Humanities & Bioethics Program
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Susan Reverby, PhD
Marion Butler McLean Professor Emerita in the History of Ideas
Professor Emerita of Women's and Gender Studies
Wellesley College
Wellesley, Massachusetts

Moral Dilemmas of the Medical Historian

We have become accustomed to hearing about troubling human experiments from biomedicine’s past. When writing about these episodes, historians seek to explain how and why now-repudiated experiments took place and to clarify normative contexts very different than our own. Yet myriad issues arise in how an author depicts investigators, their supporters, and actors’ justifications. Here Sydney Halpern discusses moral dilemmas she faced when writing about a thirty-year, U.S. government-sponsored program in which scientists deliberately infected people with hepatitis. She discusses backstories and themes of her book Dangerous Medicine: The Story behind Human Experiments with Hepatitis (Yale University Press, November 2021). And Susan Reverby provides illuminating commentary.

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Description:

The Master of Arts in Medical Humanities & Bioethics Program

Presents

A Montgomery Lecture

With

Elizabeth Bleed, MD, MA
Fellow, Pediatric Critical Care 
McGaw Medical Center, Northwestern University
Division of Critical Care, Lurie Children's Hospital Chicago

How to Train your Zebra:
Transparency, Uncertainty, and Diagnostic Error

A disease with fewer than 200,000 cases is defined as "rare" in the US, but given the nearly 7,000 rare diseases, the total number of people in the US affected by a rare disease reaches 25-30 million; many of them experience a harmful misdiagnosis or delay in diagnosis. As medicine grows in complexity, it is not possible for any one physician to have even heard of all of these rare conditions, much less diagnose them. Concurrently, diagnostic error has become a target for quality improvement and research with a growing body of literature, but the field almost never mentions rare diseases. How do we reconcile this? I present Howard Brody's "Transparency Standard" (originally used for informed consent) as a tool to use transparency to manage uncertainty and the possibility of rare outcomes. 

This lecture will be held in person for Northwestern students, faculty, and staff—in the Searle Seminar Room in the Lurie Research Building (303 E Superior). Chicago Campus. For those outside the Northwestern community and anyone who would prefer to attend remotely, the Zoom option will continue to be available.

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Description:

The Master of Arts in Medical Humanities & Bioethics Program

Presents

A Montgomery Lecture

With

Katie Watson, JD
Associate Professor of Medical Social Sciences, Medical Education, 
and Obstetrics & Gynecology
Faculty, Medical Humanities & Bioethics Graduate Program
Member, Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Gallows Humor in Medicine
Pain sometimes generates laughter instead of tears. When does humor between healthcare professionals help patient care or trainee learning, and when does it hurt? What's the difference between gallows humor and bullying or ridicule? In this multidisciplinary presentation, Professor Watson will contextualize medicine's backstage storytelling through the lens of the medical humanities, then analyze the ethics of using gallows humor as a coping mechanism in difficult situations.

This lecture will be held in person for Northwestern students, faculty, and staff—in the Searle Seminar Room in the Lurie Research Building (303 E Superior). Chicago Campus. For those outside the Northwestern community and anyone who would prefer to attend remotely, the Zoom option will continue to be available.

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Description:

The Master of Arts in Medical Humanities & Bioethics Program

Presents in Co-Sponsorship With

Center for Native American and Indigenous Research

Association of Native American Medical Students

A Montgomery Lecture

With

Patricia Loew, PhD
Professor, Medill School of Journalism
Affiliate, Center for Native American & Indigenous Research
Northwestern University

Mino-Bimaadiziwin: Braiding the Strands of Indigenous Health

When Ojibwe people think of mino-bimaadiziwin or the "good life," we think of sweetgrass, a braided medicine that reminds us that our physical, spiritual, and emotional health is interwoven. Dr Patty Loew(Mashkiiziibii--Bad River Ojibwe), journalism professor and Center for Native American and Indigenous Research affiliate, examines the intersection of Indigenous health, food sovereignty and environmental justice as Native nations seek a return to mino-bimaadiziwin.

This presentation is the Medical Humanities & Bioethics Montgomery Lecture Series’ first annual Carlos Montezuma Native Health Lecture, which is named in honor of the first Native American graduate of Northwestern University’s medical school.

It will be held in person for Northwestern students, faculty, and staff—in the Searle Seminar Room in the Lurie Research Building (303 E Superior). Chicago Campus. For those outside the Northwestern community and anyone who would prefer to attend remotely, the Zoom option will continue to be available.

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Description:

The Master of Arts in Medical Humanities & Bioethics Program

Presents

A Montgomery Lecture

Flash(y) Bioethics - MA Student Edition

Yuqi Bian (MA/MD candidate) FALSE BELIEFS

Jeffrey Poomkudy (MA/MD candidate) PROPHYLAXIS

Daniel Zheng  (MA candidate) EMPATHY

The MA Faculty introduces the Montgomery Lecture Series with a Faculty “Flash(y)” lecture every fall, and this is a variation on that theme. For this Montgomery Lecture three of our MA students are going to explore a topic in a pithy 5 to 7 minutes—that they drew out of an envelope! Come cheer them on as they tackle this challenge, and enjoy a sampling of the diversity of issues engaged by the medical humanities and bioethics.

This lecture will be held in person for Northwestern students, faculty, and staff—in the Searle Seminar Room in the Lurie Research Building (303 E Superior). Chicago Campus. For those outside the Northwestern community and anyone who would prefer to attend remotely, the Zoom option will continue to be available.

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