2023 Interim Meeting Ethics Forum — Self-Regulation of Medicine: Ethical and Legal Considerations in Physician Collegiality and Conduct
Wednesday, April 26, 2023, 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. – Virtual Live Webinar
Rebecca Weintraub Brendel, MD, JD
Chair, MMS Committee on Ethics, Grievances, and Professional Standards
Rebecca Weintraub Brendel MD, JD, is Director of the Master of Bioethics Program and Associate Director of the Center for Bioethics at Harvard Medical School. She bases her clinical and forensic psychiatry practice at Massachusetts General Hospital, where
she is Director of Law and Ethics at the Center for Law, Brain, and Behavior. She is Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Brendel is also admitted to the Massachusetts Bar. She is past Medical Director of the One Fund Center
for Boston Marathon bombing survivors at Massachusetts General Hospital and past Clinical Director of the Red Sox Foundation and Massachusetts General Hospital Home Base Program for returning veterans and their families.
Dr. Brendel is President of the American Psychiatric Association (APA). Dr. Brendel is a Distinguished Fellow of the APA. Prior to assuming her position on the APA Board of Trustees, Dr. Brendel served as Chair of the APA Ethics Committee from 2019 to
2021. She has previously served as Parliamentarian to the APA Board of Trustees, Chair of the APA Ad Hoc Workgroup on Ethics (2014-2015), member of the APA-AMA Delegation, and Chair of the APA Bylaws Committee. She is a fellow and past president of
the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry (2018-2019), of which she served on the Board from 2010 to 2020. Dr. Brendel is incoming Chair of the Massachusetts Medical Society Committee on Ethics, Grievances, and Professional Standards and an appointed
member of the American Medical Association Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs (CEJA).
Dr. Brendel is a past Councilor and Ethics Committee Member of the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society. She has also served on the Massachusetts Bar Association Health Law Section Council and Mental Health Law Committee and in consultative roles to the
Massachusetts Probate and Family Court, the One Fund Boston, and the Federation of State Medical Boards. Informed by her medical, legal, and ethics training and experience, Dr. Brendel writes, teaches, sits on journal editorial boards, and lectures
nationally and internationally on critical topics at the intersection of psychiatry, ethics, human rights, and law.
Paul Cirel
Partner, Todd & Weld LLP
Paul Cirel is a partner at the firm Todd & Weld LLP. Mr. Cirel has represented individual and institutional healthcare clients for more than 30 years in federal and state courts, as well as before administrative agencies and other governmental authorities.
Mr. Cirel also provides ongoing guidance regarding developments in health law and regulatory compliance to individual providers, practice groups, clinics, and hospitals.
Mr. Cirel represents healthcare clients facing fraud and abuse investigations; civil and criminal false claims and anti-kickback prosecutions in state and federal courts; governmental and other third-party payor audits; and disciplinary and other administrative
agency proceedings. His individual clients include physicians, dentists, nurses, physical therapists, practice managers, and other medical professionals. Mr. Cirel’s institutional clients include healthcare corporations, hospitals, medical device
companies, pharmacies, pharmaceutical companies, nursing homes, home health agencies, medical clinics, drug testing laboratories, and adult day health providers.
Christine Khandelwal, DO, MHPE, HMDC
President-Elect, North Carolina Medical Board
Member, Federation of State Medical Boards Committee on Ethics and Professionalism
Dr. Christine Khandelwal is a practicing palliative care and hospice physician and the VP of Education and Outreach at Transitions Life Care in Raleigh. She is a professor in the Department of Family Medicine (Geriatrics) at the Campbell University School
of Osteopathic Medicine and is an adjunct associate professor in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Department of Family Medicine - Palliative Care and Hospice Medicine Fellowship. Dr. Khandelwal is certified by the American Board of
Family Medicine, which has granted her certificates of added qualification in both Palliative and Hospice Medicine and in Geriatrics.
Peter A. Schwartz, MD
Chair, American Medical Association Council on Ethical & Judicial Affairs
Peter A. Schwartz, MD, is the Chair of the American Medical Association’s (AMA) Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs for a one-year. He has been a member of Council since 2016. The Council has the responsibility for creating medical ethical guidelines
for physicians and for disciplining physicians who practice outside of those guidelines. Dr. Schwartz, is the Chair Emeritus of Obstetrics and Gynecology (OB/GYN) at Reading Hospital, where served as Chair, OB/GYN from 1987 to 2005 and again from
2012 to 2014. He also served as Chair of Reading Hospital’s Ethics Committee, and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Ethics Committee.
Dr. Schwartz is also a member of the Board of Directors of Frontier Nursing University which trains almost one-third of the graduating midwives in the US annually. He is also a member of the Ethiopian Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, having
helped them create their first code of medical ethics and returning twice annually to teach medical ethics.
