On Tech Ethics with CITI Program

Discusses ethical considerations for vibe coding, which is the practice of prompting AI tools to generate code.

Our guest today is Shreya Kumar, who is an Associate Teaching Professor in Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Notre Dame. Shreya works to ensure future software engineers understand their professional responsibilities, encouraging them to take ownership of their everyday decisions. Her mission is to prepare rigorously trained, technologically proficient students who also critically evaluate the impact of their technology on society.

Additional resources:

• Software Development Ethics: https://about.citiprogram.org/course/software-development-ethics/
• CITI Program’s Tech Ethics solution: https://about.citiprogram.org/solutions/tech-ethics/

Discusses the EU Biotech Act, which is a legislative proposal focused on health biotechnology, streamlining clinical trials, and boosting biomanufacturing.

Our guest today is Eline D’Joos who is a life sciences associate in Crowell & Moring’s Brussels office. Her practice focuses on regulatory issues and commercial transactions in the life science sector, as well as interplays with general intellectual property and data protection questions.

Additional resources:

• EU Biotech Act: https://health.ec.europa.eu/publications/proposal-regulation-establish-measures-strengthen-unions-biotechnology-and-biomanufacturing-sectors_en
• Crowell & Moring Insights on the EU Biotech Act: https://www.crowell.com/en/insights/client-alerts/european-commission-proposes-biotech-act-to-boost-health-biotechnology-in-the-eu
• CITI Program’s Tech Ethics solution: https://about.citiprogram.org/solutions/tech-ethics/

Discusses regulatory considerations for research involving medical devices, particularly given the rise of AI and software as a medical device.

Our guest today is Lauren Hartsmith, who is a consultant at The HRP Consulting Group and a human subjects protection professional with over 15 years of experience in research compliance, Institutional Review Board oversight, and regulatory affairs.

Additional resources:

• FDA Software as a Medical Device: https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/digital-health-center-excellence/software-medical-device-samd
• FDA Clinical Decision Support Software Guidance: https://www.fda.gov/media/109618/download
• HRP Consulting Resources: https://thehrpconsultinggroup.com/resources/
• CITI Program’s Tech Ethics solution: https://about.citiprogram.org/solutions/tech-ethics/

Discusses ethical issues associated with the use of AI in teaching.

Our guest today is Tiffany Bourelle, who is a professor at The University of New Mexico, an instructional strategist, and an AI ethics scholar with more than a decade of experience designing high-impact educational programs.

Additional resources:

• The EU Artificial Intelligence Act: https://artificialintelligenceact.eu/
• Multiliteracies for a Digital Age: https://www.siupress.com/9780809325511/multiliteracies-for-a-digital-age/
• Empire of AI: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/743569/empire-of-ai-by-karen-hao/
• Anatomy of an AI System: https://anatomyof.ai/
• AI Ethics: https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262538190/ai-ethics/
• Stuart Selber on AI: https://sites.psu.edu/selber/chatgpt/
• Teaching with AI: https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/54122/teaching-ai
• Tiffany Bourelle Publications: https://www.tiffanybourelle.com/about
• CITI Program’s Tech Ethics solution: https://about.citiprogram.org/solutions/tech-ethics/

Discusses the unique ethical challenges virtual reality raises for research, including participant risk, consent, privacy, and institutional oversight.

Our guest today is Myra Luna-Lucero, who is the Research Compliance Director at Teachers College. Her contributions to academia span a diverse array of topics, including studies on student motivation within STEM disciplines and advancing ethical research practices.

Additional resources:

• CITI Program’s Tech Ethics solution: https://about.citiprogram.org/solutions/tech-ethics/
• CITI Program’s course catalog: https://about.citiprogram.org/course-catalog

Discusses the ethical challenges that telehealth providers must consider, including informed consent, standards and quality of care, professionalism in virtual care, verification and trust, and equity and access.

Our guest today is Kathy Wibberly, who is the Director of the Mid-Atlantic Telehealth Resource Center, which is one of 14 federally funded telehealth resource centers working to expand access to quality care through telehealth solutions for communities facing the greatest barriers to optimal health outcomes. Kathy also serves as the Director of Research at the University of Virginia’s Center for Telehealth.

Additional resources:

• National Consortium of Telehealth Resource Centers: https://telehealthresourcecenter.org/
• Mid-Atlantic Telehealth Resource Center: https://matrc.org/
• American Telemedicine Association: https://www.americantelemed.org/
• Alliance for Connected Care: https://connectwithcare.org/
• TelehealthVillage @UVA: https://about.citiprogram.org/series/teleheatlhvillage-uva/
• CITI Program’s course catalog: https://about.citiprogram.org/course-catalog

Discusses the regulation of cell therapy products and the importance of training on this topic.

Our guests today are Kathy Loper and Jared Schuster.

Kathy serves as the Director of Regulatory Affairs for NMDP, a nonprofit providing life-saving cellular therapies to patients. Kathy has extensive experience in biological product manufacturing and works closely with regulatory agencies, professionals, and other organizations to move the industry forward.

Jared also has extensive experience in biotech, specializing in cell therapy CMC, regulatory strategy, and analytical development. He has held scientific, quality, and regulatory roles throughout his career, and is clinically certified as a Histotechnologist and Advanced BioTherapies Professional. At NMDP, he oversees regulatory CMC and strategy functions for cell and gene therapy programs, focusing on procurement of cellular starting materials.

Additional resources:

• NMDP: https://www.nmdp.org/
• Regulation of Cell Therapy course: https://about.citiprogram.org/course/regulation-of-cell-therapy-products/
• CITI Program’s course catalog: https://about.citiprogram.org/course-catalog

Discusses how the development and deployment of ethical technology products is a competitive advantage for companies.

Our guests today are Jennie Baird and Robert Levitan from the Ethical Tech Project.

Jennie is the Co-Chair of the Ethical Tech Project and a digital media trailblazer. Throughout her 30+ year career, she's driven growth and innovation for some of media’s most successful digital brands and legacy-to-digital crossovers. Today, she dedicates her work to supporting and advising tech-for-good businesses and organizations. At ETP, she spearheads the nonprofit’s strategy to educate, convene, and equip technology and AI builders in making design, engineering, and go-to-market decisions that foster trust and enable human flourishing. She ardently believes that good technology should make the world better and that doing good is good for business.

Robert is the Co-Chair of the Ethical Tech Project. He is an entrepreneur and internet pioneer who has started six companies across a variety of industries and raised more than $150 in venture capital funding. Robert co-founded iVillage, an early online community that went public in 1999. He also co-founded Flooz.com, one of the first online digital currency platforms in 1999. Robert was also the co-founder of Pando Networks, which was sold to Microsoft in 2013. Robert is a collaborative business leader passionate about helping mission-driven organizations grow through strong customer relationships and productive strategic partnerships.

Additional resources:

• The Ethical Tech Project: https://www.ethicaltechproject.org/
• CITI Program’s Tech Ethics training solution: https://about.citiprogram.org/solutions/tech-ethics/

Discusses key takeaways from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s revised Clinical Decision Support Software and General Wellness Product guidance documents.

Our guests today are Christina Kuhn and Olivia Dworkin from the law firm Covington. Christina advises medical device, pharmaceutical, and biotech companies on a broad range of FDA regulatory strategy and compliance matters. She has experience with cutting-edge and complex medical technologies, including software and digital health products, oncology products, next-generation sequencing, diagnostics, and combination products. Olivia minimizes regulatory and litigation risks for clients in the medical device, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, eCommerce, and digital health industries through strategic advice on complex FDA issues, helping to bring innovative products to market while ensuring regulatory compliance.

Additional resources:

• FDA’s Clinical Decision Support Software guidance: https://www.fda.gov/regulatory-information/search-fda-guidance-documents/clinical-decision-support-software
• FDA’s General Wellness: Policy for Low Risk Devices guidance: https://www.fda.gov/regulatory-information/search-fda-guidance-documents/general-wellness-policy-low-risk-devices
• 5 Key Takeaways from FDA’s Revised Clinical Decision Support (CDS) Software Guidance: https://www.cov.com/news-and-insights/insights/2026/01/5-key-takeaways-from-fdas-revised-clinical-decision-support-cds-software-guidance
• FDA Issues Revised Guidance on General Wellness Products: https://www.cov.com/en/news-and-insights/insights/2026/01/fda-issues-revised-guidance-on-general-wellness-products
• Covington Digital Health Blog and Resources: https://www.cov.com/en/practices-and-industries/industries/digital-health
• CITI Program’s Essentials of Software as a Medical Device and Clinical Decision Support Systems: https://about.citiprogram.org/course/essentials-of-software-as-a-medical-device-clinical-decision-support-systems/
• CITI Program’s course catalog: https://about.citiprogram.org/course-catalog

Discusses digital health solutions that support health promotion and disease prevention.

Our guest today is Danielle Louder, who serves as the Co-Director of MCD Global Health’s U.S. Programs and the Director of the Northeast Telehealth Resource Center. In these roles, she is responsible for advancing the use of digital health strategies to improve health access and outcomes.

Additional resources:

• National Consortium of Telehealth Resource Centers: https://telehealthresourcecenter.org/
• National Telehealth Technology Assessment Resource Center: https://telehealthtechnology.org/
• Northeast Telehealth Resource Center: https://www.netrc.org/
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: https://telehealth.hhs.gov/
• Center for Connected Health Policy: https://www.cchpca.org/
• National Digital Inclusion Alliance: https://www.digitalinclusion.org/
• National Digital Equity Center: https://digitalequitycenter.org/
• DiMe Digital Health Series: https://about.citiprogram.org/series/dime-digital-health-series/
• TelehealthVillage @UVA: https://about.citiprogram.org/series/teleheatlhvillage-uva/
• CITI Program’s course catalog: https://about.citiprogram.org/course-catalog

Discusses voice as a biomarker of diseases, including ethical considerations and how this technology could change the way we diagnose and monitor diseases.

Our guest today is Yael Bensoussan, who is an Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology at the University of South Florida Health Morsani College of Medicine and a fellowship-trained laryngologist. She is also the principal investigator of the Bridge2AI-Voice project, a multi-institutional endeavor funded by the National Institutes of Health to fuel voice as a biomarker of diseases.

Additional resources:

• Bridge2AI-Voice: https://b2ai-voice.org/
• Voice AI Symposium: https://b2ai-voice.org/voice-ai-symposium/
• CITI Program’s course catalog: https://about.citiprogram.org/course-catalog

Discusses Active Physical Intelligence, a model designed for real-time data collection and acquisition, which serves as an adaptive foundation.

Our guests today are the co-founders of KavAI: Tara Javidi and Sam Bigdeli.

Tara has been appointed as the inaugural holder of the Jerzy (George) Lewak Endowed Chair in the Jacobs School of Engineering at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). Tara and UCSD have been selected to join the Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Postdoctoral Fellowship, a program of Schmidt Futures, to accelerate the next scientific revolution by applying AI to research in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

Sam is the CEO at KavAI, which aims to revolutionize various industries, saving time, labor, and financial resources. He is also a founding advisor at XIRA Connect and a partner at Competitive Knowledge Inc., which invests in entrepreneurs with unique technologies and helps transform their visions into reality. Sam previously held the position of Chief Operating Financial Officer at Advanced MP Technology.

Additional resources:

• KavAI: https://www.kavai.com/
• What is Active Physical Intelligence?: https://www.kavai.com/dev/active-physical-intelligence
• CITI Program’s course catalog: https://about.citiprogram.org/course-catalog

Discusses the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ proposed rule for the 2026 hospital outpatient prospective payment system and ambulatory surgical centers.

Our guest today is Eric Tower, a partner at the law firm Blank Rome. Eric serves as a trusted advisor to healthcare clients on a wide range of corporate transactional and operational matters. He is well-versed in handling mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, fraud and abuse compliance, physician practice acquisitions, financing, litigation, and corporate governance matters.

Additional resources:

• CMS fact sheet: https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/fact-sheets/calendar-year-2026-hospital-outpatient-prospective-payment-system-opps-and-ambulatory-surgical
• Impact of Recent CMS Rule on Site Neutrality and 340B Programs—Implications for Oncology Services: https://www.blankrome.com/publications/impact-recent-cms-rule-site-neutrality-and-340b-programs-implications-oncology
• CITI Program’s course catalog: https://about.citiprogram.org/course-catalog

Discusses vibe research or science, which is an emerging approach to scientific research using AI.

Our guests today are from MIT Critical Data, which develops local AI capacity in healthcare by building open data and software, fostering community engagement through datathons, and advocating for AI equity in research.

• Sebastian Cajas Senior is an AI scientist at CeADAR with expertise in generative AI, quantum machine learning, and responsible AI. Sebastian is a former fellow in computer science at Harvard University, leading projects in multimodal AI, AI safety, and federated learning. Sebastian is passionate about applying AI to healthcare, education, and high-impact societal challenges.
• Leo Anthony Celi is the principal investigator behind the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care (MIMIC) and its family of databases. With close to 100k users worldwide, an open codebase, and close to 10k publications in Google Scholar, the datasets have shaped the course of machine learning in healthcare.
• Meskerem Kebede is a research officer at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Meskerem has previously worked as a clinician and lecturer at the ENT surgery department at Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. She is passionate about strengthening surgical systems in low- and middle-income countries and has a special interest in health workforce development in East Africa.
• Hyunjung Gloria Kwak is an assistant professor at Emory University’s School of Nursing, with a PhD in Computer Science. She researches bias-aware modeling, social determinants of health, and simulation-based studies, integrating large-scale EHRs and multimodal data to improve decision-making, and leads interdisciplinary projects on predictive analytics, representation, and real-world AI evaluation in healthcare.

Additional resources:

• MIT Critical Data: https://criticaldata.mit.edu/
• CITI Program’s course catalog: https://about.citiprogram.org/course-catalog

Discusses various ethical and practical challenges organizations face in managing cybersecurity risks and responding to breach incidents.

Our guest today is Lynn Sessions, the lead of the Healthcare Privacy and Compliance team and co-lead of the national Healthcare Industry team at BakerHostetler. Lynn focuses her practice on healthcare privacy and data security, breach response, regulatory defense, and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliance.

Additional resources:

• BakerHostetler Data Counsel: https://www.bakerdatacounsel.com/
• Health Care Compliance Association: https://www.hcca-info.org/
• American Health Law Association: https://www.americanhealthlaw.org/
• CITI Program’s course catalog: https://about.citiprogram.org/course-catalog

Discusses the need for bioethics departments in HBCU medical schools.

Our guest today is Dr. Donald Carter III, a biomedical ethicist and Assistant Professor at Mercer University School of Medicine. He holds degrees from Fisk, Tennessee State, Vanderbilt, and Loyola Chicago. A 2023 Hastings Center Sadler Scholar, his research explores clinical ethics, AI in medicine, race, and social justice.

Additional resources:

• The Hastings Center for Bioethics – https://www.thehastingscenter.org/
• The American Journal of Bioethics – https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/uajb20
• Bioethics Today – https://bioethicstoday.org/
• Bioethics in the Margins – https://bioethicsinthemargins.org/
• Bioethics for the People – https://www.bioethicsforthepeople.com/
• CITI Program’s Bioethics course – https://about.citiprogram.org/course/bioethics/
• CITI Program’s Healthcare Ethics Committee course – https://about.citiprogram.org/course/healthcare-ethics-committee/

Discusses the responsible integration of AI into healthcare delivery.

Our guest today is Dr. Yauheni Solad who is a Managing Partner at Dalos Partners, leading healthcare AI strategy and validation. Dr. Solad is a research affiliate at Yale University and a board-certified physician in clinical informatics. He formerly led digital health innovation at UC Davis Health and Yale, advancing FHIR interoperability, telemedicine, and responsible AI standards.

Additional resources:

• ReAligned Healthcare podcast: https://realignedhealthcare.com/
• Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association: https://academic.oup.com/jamia
• The Lancet Digital Health: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/landig/home
• Deep Medicine: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/3350442
• Request for Information on the Development of an AI Action Plan: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/02/06/2025-02305/request-for-information-on-the-development-of-an-artificial-intelligence-ai-action-plan
• WHO Harnessing AI for Health: https://www.who.int/teams/digital-health-and-innovation/harnessing-artificial-intelligence-for-health
• National Academy of Medicine AI and Emerging Technology: https://nam.edu/our-work/key-issues/artificial-intelligence-and-emerging-technology/
• CITI Program’s course catalog: https://about.citiprogram.org/course-catalog

Discusses the updated International Council for Harmonisation (ICH) Guideline for Good Clinical Practice known as E6(R3) and what it means for researchers.

Our guest today is Cindy Gates, JD, RN, an experienced leader in human subjects research protections and clinical research. Cindy has previously worked at WIRB, the University of California Davis, the University of Miami, the Houston Methodist Medical Center, and George Washington University.

This episode is co-hosted by Eric D. Kupferberg, PhD, Associate Director of Clinical Research Education at CITI Program.

Additional resources:

• ICH E6(R3): https://www.ich.org/page/efficacy-guidelines#6-2
• CITI Program’s ICH E6(R3): An Introduction course: https://about.citiprogram.org/course/ich-e6r3-an-introduction/

Discusses the importance of fostering AI literacy in research and higher education.

Our guest today is Sarah Florini who is an Associate Director and Associate Professor in the Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics at Arizona State University. Sarah’s work focuses on technology, social media, technology ethics, digital ethnography, and Black digital culture. Among other things, Sarah is dedicated to fostering critical AI literacy and ethical engagement with AI/ML technologies. She founded the AI and Ethics Workgroup to serve as a catalyst for critical conversations about the role of AI models in higher education.

This episode is co-hosted by Alexa McClellan, MA, Associate Director of Research Foundations at CITI Program.

Additional resources:

• Distributed AI Research Institute: https://www.dair-institute.org/
• Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000: https://www.dair-institute.org/maiht3k/
• Tech Won’t Save Us: https://techwontsave.us/
• CITI Program’s Essentials of Responsible AI course: https://about.citiprogram.org/course/essentials-of-responsible-ai/

Discusses data privacy compliance and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting.

Our guest today is Katrina Destrée who is a globally experienced privacy and sustainability professional. Katrina’s work in privacy and sustainability focuses on privacy programs, ESG reporting, awareness and training, and strategic communications.

Additional resources:

• International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP): https://iapp.org/
• ISACA: https://www.isaca.org/
• Global Enabling Sustainability Initiative (GeSI): https://www.gesi.org/
• Agréa Privacy & ESG: https://agreaprivacyesg.com/
• CITI Program’s “GDPR for Research and Higher Ed” course: https://about.citiprogram.org/course/gdpr-for-research-and-higher-ed/
• CITI Program’s “Big Data and Data Science Research Ethics” course: https://about.citiprogram.org/course/big-data-and-data-science-research-ethics/
• CITI Program’s “Essentials of Responsible AI” course: https://about.citiprogram.org/course/essentials-of-responsible-ai/