The Role of Medicine and Dentistry During the Holocaust and its Contemporary Relevance: Sustaining Our Moral Compass
Speaker
Hedy S. Wald, PhD, is Clinical Professor of Family Medicine at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Faculty at Harvard Medical School’s Pediatrics Leadership Program, and a Commissioner for the Lancet Commission on Medicine, Nazism, and the Holocaust. A Fulbright Scholar in medical education, she has received Dean’s Excellence in Teaching Awards and served as Scholar-in-Residence at Oxford University. Dr. Wald has delivered over 100 international keynotes and workshops on resilience, wellbeing, and professional identity formation in health professions education. Her research includes reflective writing and Holocaust history’s relevance to medicine. Her work has been widely published and cited in major media outlets.
Disclosure: Dr. Wald has no relevant financial relationships to disclose.
Course Description
The Lancet Commission on Medicine, Nazism, and the Holocaust calls for confronting, reflecting upon, and learning about egregious ethical transgressions of health professionals and the medical establishment during Nazism and the Holocaust in all health professions education to support lifelong morally resilient, history-informed professional identity formation. Contemporary relevance of critical reflection on this history for cultivating moral leadership, countering antisemitism and discrimination of all kinds, and preserving human dignity is compelling. Through lenses of medical educator and daughter of a Holocaust survivor, Dr. Wald delves into this dark history and braids the story of her collaboration with the Witten-Herdecke Faculty of Health, Germany within their Auschwitz-Birkenau study trip for health professions students. Impact and outcomes for study trip participants and expanded educational initiatives in the U.S. will be discussed as well as the contemporary relevance.
Educational Objectives
This seminar provides essential historical knowledge, including compelling examples of moral courage/resistance, to catalyze reflection on individuals’ core values as healthcare professionals for humanistic and ethically responsible healthcare practice and global citizenship.
Contact
PDMContinuingEd@dental.upenn.edu