Treuman Katz Center for Pediatric Bioethics and Palliative Care Awarded 2024 Cornerstone Award From ASBH

Sept. 27, 2024 – Seattle Children’s Research Institute’s Treuman Katz Center for Pediatric Bioethics and Palliative Care (TKC) has been recognized for the 2024 Cornerstone Award from the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH).

Members of the Treuman Katz Center accepting the 2024 Cornerstone Award at the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities annual conference.

The ASBH Cornerstone Award is the society’s highest honor given to an institution, which recognizes outstanding, enduring contributions by an institution that has deeply enriched and helped shape the direction of the fields of bioethics and health humanities. Seattle Children’s Treuman Katz Center is the first pediatric institution to be awarded this honor.

“This is an incredible honor for the center and for Seattle Children’s. It is a testament to our center members and the excellent and impactful scholarship they have conducted. It is also a tribute to the initial vision Seattle Children’s leaders had for the center and to their enduring support over many years.”

— Douglas J. Opel, MD, MPH, center director  

Formed in 2004 as the Treuman Katz Center for Pediatric Bioethics, the center expanded its focus in 2018 to include pediatric palliative care research to improve quality of life, medical decision-making and communication for children with severe illness and their families. In 2023, the center was renamed the Treuman Katz Center for Pediatric Bioethics and Palliative Care to align with this commitment to scholarship and excellence in both pediatric bioethics and palliative care research.

Treuman Katz Center investigators address established and emerging issues in pediatric ethics and palliative care with a strong emphasis on interdisciplinary research. The disciplines represented among investigators at the center include medicine, nursing, public health, social science, theology, philosophy, psychology and public policy.

Leading the Discussion on Pediatric Bioethics and Palliative Care

The center is also host to Seattle Children’s annual Pediatric Bioethics Conference — a summer event that brings together more than 200 attendees from across the globe to explore topics of ethical import facing researchers and clinicians today. This past summer’s event marked 19 years of the conference, and focused on the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into pediatric research and clinical care ethically and equitably. Cutting-edge topics such as these position the conference as a cornerstone event for the community and a national resource leading the way for exploration of pediatric bioethics and palliative care research.

Dr. Aaron Wightman gives opening remarks at the 19th annual Pediatric Bioethics Conference.

“We were the first center to be created to solely focus on pediatric bioethics, and the center’s yearly conference is aimed to bring together experts to think through relevant issues in our field,” shares Douglas Diekema, MD, MPH, who partners with Aaron Wightman, MD, MA, as co-center director of education.

While this award is recognition of the impactful and unique scholarship happening at the center, Dr. Opel looks forward to embarking on expanding the center’s scientific expertise.

“We are thrilled to be recognized as a premier research center that has helped shape pediatric healthcare, research and policy. We hope to build upon this recognition by expanding our research portfolio into an even broader range of areas that have bioethics and palliative care import, such as precision medicine, maternal-fetal interventions and environmental justice.”

— Empress Rivera-Ruiz