Cut It Out: Dissecting the Issue of Rising Sexual Misconduct Within Surgery

Event Schedule by Time Zone: 
Pacific: 10 AM to 11 AM | Mountain: 11 AM to 12 PM | Central: 12 PM to 1 PM | Eastern: 1 PM to 2 PM

This critical webinar addresses the alarming rise of sexual misconduct within the surgical profession, exploring its scope, impact, and the profound implications it has on both health care professionals and patient care. Participants will gain a comprehensive understanding of how sexual misconduct affects surgical practice, its link to both direct and indirect patient harm, and the broader consequences for the health care system.

Key topics will include:

1. The extent of sexual misconduct within surgery and its impact on patients, professionals, and the surgical community at large.
2. An in-depth analysis of trends, legal frameworks, and regulatory perspectives from both the US and UK, highlighting the differences and similarities in how these regions address the issue.
3. Proven strategies for preventing sexual misconduct within surgical environments, including education, policy development, and cultural change.
4. Corrective actions for addressing misconduct, improving institutional responses, and supporting victims.

Learning objectives:

1. Understand the scope and impact of sexual misconduct within the surgical profession and its link to direct and indirect patient harm.
2. Examine the trends, legal frameworks and regulatory perspectives from both the US and UK.
3. Explore strategies for prevention, as well as corrective actions.

Speaker:

Dr Harriet Lewis (MD) LLM, MRCS, PGCert, BM BS, BSc(Hons)

Harriet is a highly regarded clinician within the field of orthopedic surgery and currently leads the WTW Global FINEX Healthcare Clinical Risk Consultancy Service focusing on UK & International health care organizations. Harriet's multidisciplinary & systems engineering approach has led to successful medical education strategies and patient safety initiatives, earning her local awards. A founding member of an international training collaborative and keynote speaker, she holds qualifications in medical education and a Masters in Medical Law. Harriet's commitment to health care quality improvement is reflected in her research publications and her role in multicenter research studies.

Joan Porcaro RN, BSN, MM, CPHRM, FASHRM

Joan has previously served as a system director of risk management and patient relations for large health systems, leading teams supporting multistate hospital systems. Currently, she provides loss prevention support to health care clients. Joan has also served as an operational leader in acute care, home health, hospice, and physician practice settings. In her current role, Joan provides support and resources in loss prevention to health care clients to assist them in better managing and reducing their risks, Additionally Joan is an adjunct professor for the masters in health care administration program at Texas University.

Dr Caroline Fryar (MD) MBChB MRCGP LLM MBA (with distinction)

Caroline is a General Practitioner by background and joined the MDU in 2006, initially as a medico-legal adviser, and was later Head of Advisory Services for over 8 years, leading the team supporting members with a range of medico-legal issues, including complaints, medical malpractice claims, coroners’ inquests, GMC regulatory, disciplinary and criminal investigations.  She has also worked as an MDU clinical risk manager and was an examiner for Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine, leading the development of the Diploma in Legal Medicine (DLM).  She joined the MDU Board as Professional Services Director in April 2024.

Dylan Braverman, JD

Dylan Braverman is an Equity Partner with a national trial practice focused on cyber, medical malpractice/ nursing home professional liability, sexual molestation/ abuse, non-medical professional liability (attorneys, architects, educators, etc.), construction litigation, products liability/ medical devise, commercial, transportation litigation, E&O and other high value civil litigation. Dylan and the BPN Emerging Trends Litigation Team are nationally recognized as a leader in COVID-19 litigation and other emerging litigation trends. Dylan services the London and International Markets as an underwriter’s representative, TPA, monitoring counsel and trial counsel. Dylan is also experienced in class-action and MDL claims, as well as multi-state coverage litigation.