Last weekend (February 28 – March 2), AAPLOG (along with our co-hosts ACPeds), held our national conference, the 2025 Matthew Bulfin Educational Conference, in Orlando, Florida. Nearly 350 attendees gathered to network; attend lectures from esteemed medical, legal, and other experts; and reflect on “The Way of Medicine” — the theme of this year’s conference.
The conference included two amazing keynote talks. The Friday night Dr. Donna Harrison Keynote Address was delivered by palliative care physician and Duke Divinity School professor Dr. Farr Curlin and South Carolina University professor and ethicist Dr. Christopher Tollefsen, co-authors of The Way of Medicine: Ethics and the Healing Profession. The Saturday night keynote address was delivered by psychiatrist Dr. Miriam Grossman, best-selling author of Lost in Trans-Nation: A Psychiatrist’s Guide Out of the Madness.
Above: Dr. Tollefsen offers his keynote address with Dr. Curlin
Above: Dr. Miriam Grossman giving her keynote lecture on Saturday night
One of the most popular plenary sessions of the conference was a panel discussion of “hard cases,” in which neonatologist Dr. Robin Pierucci, maternal fetal medicine specialist Dr. Kerri Brackney, and radiologist Dr. Brandon Brown presented profiles of patients they’ve treated who were facing ethically and medically complex clinical scenarios to ethicist Dr. Christopher Tollefsen. If you weren’t able to attend MBEC in person, you can register to watch the video of this panel for CME credits once it becomes available. Click here to register for CME.
Above: Drs. Pierucci, Brackney, and Brown present their cases to Dr. Tollefsen at the “hard cases” panel
We also hosted our most robust pre-conference day this year with several options available to attendees. These included a day-long media and expert witness training, a workshop by Dr. Curlin and Dr. Tollefsen on “The Way of Medicine: Ethics and the Healing Profession,” a mini-conference by fertility education organization FACTS About Fertility, and a research “bootcamp.” Attendees also enjoyed a networking event the night before the conference, where they had the opportunity to get to know not only one another, but many of our speakers and sponsors as well.
Thank you to all of those who attended MBEC 2025 and made it our best conference yet!
Above: AAPLOG leaders at MBEC 2025
If you didn’t make it to this year’s conference – we’ll be honest with you; you missed out! But don’t worry. You’ll have another opportunity to take part in this groundbreaking conference next year. Save the date for MBEC 2026, which will be held February 27 – March 1, 2026 in Seattle, Washington (with pre-conference on Feb. 26th).
