2015 Bioethics Lecture

The Ethics of Destination Therapy:

When a Bridge Becomes the Journey’s End

Denise Dudzinski, Ph.D.

Professor and Chair,

Department of Bioethics & Humanities,

University of Washington School of Medicine

Dr. Dudzinski will discuss the ethical issues that arise when ventricular assist devices (VADs) are implanted in patients who do not qualify for heart transplant, making these devices ‘destination therapy’.  In many ways destination therapy is an advanced end of life treatment modality and its relationship to palliative care continues to evolve.   Lessons we’ve learned about destination therapy inform other advanced life-sustaining treatments like Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO).

Dr. Dudzinski is Professor & Chair of the Department of Bioethics & Humanities, Adjunct Professor in the School of Law, and Adjunct Professor in Pediatrics & Family Medicine at the University of Washington.  She earned her PhD in Ethics from Vanderbilt University. She co-edited a book entitled Complex Ethics Consultations: Cases that Haunt Us published by Cambridge University Press in 2008. In addition to several book chapters, her articles, often pertaining to clinical and organizational ethics, have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Pediatrics, Hastings Center Report, Theoretical Medicine & Bioethics, The American Journal of Bioethics, the Journal of Clinical Ethics, and Annals of Thoracic Surgery.

This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education through the joint providership of The Medical College of Wisconsin and Milwaukee Academy of Medicine. The Medical College of Wisconsin is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

The Medical College of Wisconsin designates this Live Activity for a maximum of 1  AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s) ™.  Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.