Center for Ethics

Register Now for the 2025 Healthcare Ethics Consortium

We warmly welcome your participation in the 2025 Healthcare Ethics Consortium (HEC) Conference, our 30th annual event. We view this as a “working conference” during which we will all be contributing to the discussion around our four key topics:

Trust and sources of truth in healthcare. How do we combat misinformation or disinformation? How can we create and strengthen trust on an interpersonal level as we work with patients, families and colleagues? What can we do to create a culture of trustworthiness in our health care institutions?
What will be “valued” in 2035? How do we balance metrics and reporting with the lived human experience? What are the potential benefits or costs of metrics to quality care and healthcare professionals’ sense of professional “mattering”?
Are we really listening to patients? What can we learn from listening to patients’ stories? How can we recognize and address our own biases? How can we advocate for patients and what actions are ethically essential in shared decision making?
Exploring emerging issues in healthcare: What will health care look like in 2035? Will we recognize it? What part will technology play in changing delivery of care or shifting providers’ roles? Where should we invest our time and resources now to create a future we want to see?

Throughout these 2 days we will explore what Ethical issues we anticipate encountering as Healthcare evolves over the coming decade. In addition to hearing from exceptional speakers as we explore the 4 key topics above, we will discuss deidentified patient cases, share experiences in small groups, review current models, and collaborate to develop action steps. Our attendees - multidisciplinary healthcare professionals in nursing, medicine, social work, spiritual care, ethics, health law, health administration, medical humanities, and other interested fields - will explore these complex issues and practice models.