CCT Student Delivers Keynote at International Bioethics Conference
CCT student Lukas Chandler delivered a keynote address at the VII Meeting of Bioethics and II International Symposium on Bioethics at Mackenzie Presbyterian University in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Representing Georgetown’s Kennedy Institute of Ethics (KIE), Lukas discussed the influence of the KIE in the invention of the field of bioethics, in addition to his own research in telehealth.
In his talk titled “The Kennedy Institute of Ethics and the Field of Bioethics: A Brief History and the Example of Telehealth”, Lukas described the role of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics in the emergence of bioethics in the 1970s (Lukas’s talk begins at 43.20 of the recording). The KIE is a center for practically engaged ethics at Georgetown University. Established in 1971 with a founding interest in medical ethics, it is one of the oldest academic ethics centers in the world.
Lukas then discussed ethical questions in telehealth, his primary research area at CCT, and posed questions such as: Who is the steward of your biomedical data? Who is responsible if that information is hacked? How can virtual healthcare empower patients and strengthen health literacy? Rather than focusing on the dominant discourse of big data, Lukas discussed the importance of focusing on the individual biomedical data exchange during a virtual health encounter, and what that data exchange means for patient-provider communication and patient privacy. As he said, “This ethical debate is important in our constantly changing world, especially as technologies and communications are evolving and transforming, changing how we experience life.”
Lukas is completing his CCT degree as a part-time student while serving as Event & Operations Manager of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics.