It’s really easy to access online food delivery wherever you are so why not medical ethics? Dr. Kamran Mirza (University of Michigan) and Dr. Alex Tannenbaum (University of Wisconsin) have just the app for you…PathologyEthics.com.

Starting with a word-of-mouth launch in 2023, the site offers a freely accessible, high-quality, centralized educational resource for ethics topics in pathology and laboratory medicine. This tool assists pathology residents and departments with fulfilling ACGME resident milestones in ethics and professionalism along with empowering pathology departments to host and facilitate engaging small group discussions for trainees on ethics topics pertinent to the practice of pathology and laboratory medicine.

Receiving funding from the CAP Foundation via its Pierre W. Keitges, MD, FCAP, Medical Ethics Fund, this project directly aligned with supporting the leadership role of pathologists in medical ethics, patient care, and patient advocacy.

Focusing on evaluating ethical issues facing pathology and medicine, the development of a virtual platform dedicated to ethics-in-pathology education, with subject matter experts, pathologists and ethicists that are qualified in both the pathologic and ethical areas of their presentations, continue to be recruited with the goal of converting their content into interactable online modules, recorded lectures, case-based activities, learner worksheets, and facilitator guides.

Using this model, those accessing the website can independently engage with topics of their choosing or confidently establish a small group discussion with colleagues using the provided materials.

The reach continues to grow as content is relevant to medical students, pathology fellows, attending physicians, medical laboratory science students, and other medical professionals.

With engagement from regions in North America, Southeast Asia, South America, and Northern Africa, the site content is designed to be relevant to the general practice of pathology, remaining cognizant of cultural and legal differences that could impact ethical decision-making, regardless of the practice location or nationality of the user. Using this curriculum model, interactive, informative, and high-quality education on ethics-in-pathology topics can be delivered to anybody with an internet connection.

The aim is to populate the site with an abundance of topics applicable to the practice of pathology – including topics in forensics, molecular pathology, transfusion, professionalism, and more. Further, because this content delivery model is virtual and continuous, it offers the ability to constantly update the site information to address any changes in the evolving field of pathology.

Posted curriculum features ethical topics that can be encountered in the practice of a pathologist or laboratory professional. The educational modules present one or more ethical issues in a subspecialty of pathology, provide ample background and resources to explore the issue(s), and present ethical frameworks and tools to help learners navigate complex ethical dilemmas. Relevant, hypothetical case examples and probing questions are available to give learners an opportunity to apply what they have learned and explore their thoughts.

The content on the site is monitored by PathologyEthics.com faculty so it does not conflict with CAP positions or policies; this to be accomplished via the engagement of trained educators on ways to present ethical issues along with analysis using ethical models providing the resources and tools to promote educational thought on this subject and the resulting website content. The website is always looking for interested content creators to help contribute to its growing list of ethics-in-pathology modules.

If you are interested and have some experience, please navigate to the “Contribute a Module” website heading or reach out to pathologyethics@gmail.com directly.

Those who visited the CAP Foundation room at CAP24 had the opportunity to see a live demo of PathologyEthics.com conducted by Dr. Tannenbaum. For those attending the upcoming AAPath meeting in July, Dr. Tannenbaum will be circulating about and is happy to give you a guided tour of the website site.