Inaugural Business Ethics Conference | McGill Desautels Faculty of Management

Healthcare: Ethical Management in the Context of Systemic Challenges

This event took place on November 10th, 2023

This full-day conference addresses best practices for ethical management, focusing on the healthcare industry. Like no other industry, healthcare has faced the challenges of dealing with disruptive innovations while ensuring equitable access. The healthcare industry had to address these challenges while dealing with global public health crises and severely constrained resources. The conference participants discussed some best practices that firms in this industry adopt to address systemic biases, foster ethical innovation and entrepreneurship, and ethically introduce new AI technologies. They have also discussed lessons firms in other sectors can learn from healthcare experience.

Panel 1 – Ethics and Innovation in Healthcare

Healthcare entrepreneurship and innovations are two significant forces shaping the healthcare industry today. What are the ethical challenges faced by entrepreneurs and innovators in healthcare? How can entrepreneurs and innovators foster ethics in healthcare? The speakers in this panel will discuss how to ensure that innovation is ethical, promotes patient well-being and lowers costs.

Moderator:

• Robert Nason, Associate Professor; Director, Innovation & Entrepreneurship, Desautels

Faculty of Management

Panelists:

• Laurette Dubé, Professor, Marketing; James McGill Chair of Consumer and Lifestyle Psychology and Marketing; Chair and Scientific Director, McGill Centre for the Convergence of Health and Economics
• Dr. Alan Forster, VP (Innovation), McGill University Health Centre and Professor, McGill University
• Negin Ashouri, Co-Founder and CTO of FemTherapeutics Inc.
• Dr. Lawrence Rosenberg, President and CEO of the Integrated Health and Social Services University Network for West-Central Montreal

Panel 2 – Promoting Inclusion and Equity in Healthcare

The COVID crisis has revealed significant inequalities in access to healthcare. How can the healthcare industry start to address these challenges while struggling with severely constrained resources? The speakers in this panel will discuss how affordability, inclusion of marginalized groups, and private-public funding are shaping the healthcare industry today.

Moderator: 

• Lindsay Holmgren, Associate Professor; Director, Laidley Centre for Business Ethics and Equity

Panelists:

• Dr. Marcia Anderson, Vice-Dean Indigenous Health, Social Justice and Anti-Racism, Rady Faculty of Health Science, University of Manitoba
• Richard Budgell, Assistant Professor, Department of Family Medicine, McGill University
• Seeta Ramdass, Associate Director of the Office of Social Accountability and Community Engagement (SACE), Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, McGill University
• Dr. Timothy Evans, Executive Director, COVID-19 Immunity Task Force Director and Associate Dean, School of Population and Global Health, Associate Vice-Principal (Global Policy and Innovation), McGill University
• Dr. Rita Charon, [Recorded version only] Professor and Chair of Medical Humanities & Ethics, Professor of Medicine, and Executive Director of Columbia Narrative Medicine, Columbia University

Panel 3 –Ethical Management of AI in Healthcare

The explosion in AI is bringing about a significant upheaval in the healthcare industry. What ethical challenges does AI bring to healthcare? What have we learned so far about ethically introducing AI in healthcare settings? The discussants in this panel will discuss cutting-edge findings on best practices for managing AI in healthcare.

Moderator:

• Nicholas King, Associate Professor, Department of Equity, Ethics and Policy, Biomedical Ethics Unit

Panelists:

• Samer Faraj, Canada Research Chair in Technology, Innovation & Organizing, Associate Member, Department of Social Studies of Medicine, McGill University
• Azadeh Dastmalchi, CEO, VitalTracer
• Justin Mallet, Health System Partner, Roche Canada
• Ignacio Cofone, Associate Professor, Canada Research Chair in Artificial Intelligence Law and Data Governance, McGill University

We are proud to announce that our event has been awarded a Silver Sustainable Event certification by the McGill Sustainable Events program run by the McGill Office of Sustainability.