2025 Pediatric Bioethics Conference

Narratives and Communication: Bridging Science, Stories and Ethics in Pediatrics

Thank you for joining us for the 20th Annual Pediatric Bioethics Conference: Narratives and Communication: Bridging Science, Stories and Ethics in Pediatrics, where we explored questions related to the ethical implications of storytelling in pediatrics and the significance of narrative in clinical care and pediatric bioethics. 

Videos of presentations are posted below.

Thursday, July 17, 2025

The Power of Words: The Science, Theory and Practice of Communicating With Patients and Families

Communicating With Patients and Families During Serious Illness
Jennifer Mack, MD, MPH, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School

What Are We Talking About When We Talk About Shared Decision-Making?
Doug Opel, MD, MPH, Seattle Children’s/University of Washington

Do Words Matter? Humanizing Stigmatized Groups Through the Words We Use
Maya Ragavan, MD, MPH, MS, Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh

Interdependent Decision-Making: What It Means for Pediatrics
Emily A. Largent, JD, PhD, RN, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine

Breakout Sessions – Not Recorded

• Workshop 1: Leveraging Language to Mitigate Against Bias
  Gitanjli (Tanya) Arora, MD, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles
  Amy Trowbridge, MD, Seattle Children’s/University of Washington
• Workshop 2: Pearls and Pitfalls in the Study of Communication in the Healthcare Encounter
  Doug Opel, MD, MPH, Seattle Children’s/University of Washington
  Jeffrey D. Robinson, PhD, Portland State, Oregon Health and Science University
• Workshop 3: The Weight of Words: Recognizing the Linguistic Tools We Use to Assert Power
  Jennifer Kett, MD, Seattle Children’s/University of Washington
  LTC Jeanne Krick, MD, MA, San Antonio Uniformed Services Health Education Consortium; Medical Ethics Consultant to the Surgeon General of the Army
  Aaron Wightman, MD, MA,  Seattle Children’s/University of Washington

Friday, July 18, 2025

Attending to Stories: Pediatrics, Bioethics and Narrative

Poetry Broadsides: Patient Narratives Through Creativity
Sierra Nelson, Senior Writer-in-Residence at Seattle Children’s Hospital, Seattle Arts & Lectures Writers-in-the-Schools Program

Narrative Ethics: Diverse Meanings and Practices
Elizabeth Lanphier, PhD, MS, HEC-C, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine

Narrative Ethics: The Moral Work of Stories
Martha Montello, PhD, Harvard Medical School

Story Matters: The Importance of Narrative in Clinical Care and Ethics
D. Micah Hester, PhD, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences; Arkansas Children’s Hospital

Bearing Witness: Narratives for Promoting Change in Medicine
Rachel Pearson, MD, PhD, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio

Making Space for Stories: Articulating the Common Threads That Connect Us
Maren E. Olson, MD, MPH, MEd, University of Minnesota Medical School

Cases That Haunt Us: Narrative in Clinical Ethics Consultation
Denise Dudzinski, PhD, Seattle Children’s/University of Washington

Attending to the Silenced Voices
Arika Moore Patneaude, MSW, LICSW, APHSW-C, Seattle Children’s/University of Washington

Rethinking the Bioethics Origin Story
Aaron Wightman, MD, MA, Seattle Children’s/University of Washington

A Conversation With Sheri Fink
Moderator: Aaron Wightman, MD, MA, Seattle Children’s/University of Washington

• Sheri Fink, MD, PhD, Pulitzer Prize-winning Journalist and Author; Tulane University Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine 

Saturday, July 19, 2025

Attending to Stories: Pediatrics, Bioethics and Narrative

From Monologue to Dialogue to Broader Conversation: Learning Through Story Collections
Ana S. Iltis, PhD, Center for Bioethics, Health and Society and Department of Philosophy, Wake Forest University

Narratives and Counter-Narratives: Who Controls Our Storied Selves?
Keisha Ray, PhD, McGovern Medical School

The Fragility of Narrative: Unpacking the Fallibility of Memory and Storytelling
Douglas Diekema, MD, MPH, Seattle Children’s/University of Washington

Abstract Sessions – Not Recorded

Narratives in Organ Transplant and Chronic Disease
Moderator: Gina Campelia, University of Washington

• Rose Al Abosy, University of Washington
• Taylor House, University of Wisconsin
• Kristin Stockard, University of Washington

Narrative Approaches in Education and Communication
Moderator: Ben Wilfond, Seattle Children’s/University of Washington

• Jeanne Krick, San Antonio Uniformed Services Health Education Consortium
• Natalie Lanocha, Oregon Health and Science University
• Ambria Williams, St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital

Narrative and Counternarrative
Moderator: Mithya Lewis Newby, Seattle Children’s/University of Washington

• Elena Bregier, Duke University School of Nursing
• Jaime Hensel, Children’s Minnesota
• Thivia Jegathesan, Provincial Health Services Authority

Genetics
Moderator: Kate MacDuffie, Seattle Children’s/University of Washington

• Katharine Callahan, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
• Betty Cohn, University of Washington
• Kirsten Wilhelm, Helen Devos Children’s Hospital; Corewell Health

Past and Future Stories: Narrative and Moral Imagination in Pediatrics
Luke Mosley, MD, MTS