Kinsman Bioethics Conference

The annual Kinsman Bioethics Conference was established in 1989 through an endowment from the late John Kinsman. The conference convenes leaders in ethics from across the state and is hosted by a different city in Oregon each year.  The conference is a collaborative partnership, designed to draw on and nurture the strengths of each community it serves. Breakout sessions promote shared learning among medical facilities throughout the region and offer powerful new tools for improvements in health care ethics. Many times, the conference is also a special time for attendees to build collaborative relationships and an opportunity to mentor and support future leaders in the field.

Denise Dudzinski

Featured Keynote Speaker
Denise M. Dudzinski, PhD, HEC-C 
Professor (Joint) in Bioethics & Humanities and Pediatrics, Division of Bioethics & Palliative Care Fellow of the Hastings Center
Adjunct Professor, School of Law and in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Washington
Chief of the UW Medicine Ethics Consultation Service, Director of Organizational Ethics at Seattle Children's Hospital

  • Examine common ethical dilemmas faced at the bedside through various ethics-based frameworks
  • Explain the ways in which structural inequities through policy, legislation, etc... negatively impact marginalized patients and their loved ones
  • Consider the role that policy has on both clinical ethics at the bedside and broader organizational ethics issues
     

Continuing Medical Education

ACCREDITATION: The School of Medicine, Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

CREDIT: Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine designates this live activity for a maximum of 6.25 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Social Work Credit

This conference has been submitted for approval to the National Association of Social Workers to award up to X clinical contact hours.

Dr. Denise Dudzinski is Professor (Joint) in Bioethics & Humanities and Pediatrics, Division of Bioethics & Palliative Care as well as Fellow of the Hastings Center. She was Chair of the Department of Bioethics & Humanities from 2014-2022. She is Adjunct Professor in the School of Law and in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Washington. She is Chief of the UW Medicine Ethics Consultation Service and Director of Organizational Ethics at Seattle Children's Hospital.
 
She earned her PhD in Ethics from Vanderbilt University and her Masters of Theological Studies (MTS) from Vanderbilt Divinity School.  She is also certified in healthcare ethics consultation through the American Society for Bioethics & Humanities (HEC-C). 
 
She was a member of the American Society for Bioethics & Humanities Board of Directors and has served on two task forces to update the Core Competencies in Healthcare Ethics Consultation.  She serves on the editorial boards of the American Journal of Bioethics and Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics. She directs the department's Advanced Training in Healthcare Ethics program and has directed the annual Summer Seminar in Health Care Ethics for over fifteen years. She was Associate Editor for the American Journal of Bioethics from 2019-2022.
 
Dr. Dudzinski developed an ethics curriculum for residency programs and teaches bioethics to health care providers, medical and nursing students, graduate, and law students at the University of Washington and affiliated hospitals.  

Past Kinsman Conference Presentations

Moving Towards a Beloved Community Bioethics - Patrick T. Smith, PhD

Reflection - Patrick T. Smith, PhD

Patrick T. Smith, PhD - Associate Research Professor of Theological Ethics and Bioethics; Senior Fellow, Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University

Along with his work at the Divinity School, Smith is the director of the bioethics program for the Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities, and History of Medicine and associate professor in population health sciences, Department of Health Sciences, Duke University Medical School. He has served as a member of the board of directors and the executive committee for the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities. His current research and writing are in the areas of moral philosophy, bioethics, theological ethics, end-of-life care, and religious social ethics. Professor Smith was named a 2016-17 Henry Luce III Fellow in Theology, was the recipient of the 2019 Paul Ramsey Award for Excellence in Bioethics, and in 2022 received the Edmund Pellegrino Medalist Award in health care ethics.