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Fellowship in Surgical/Clinical Ethics

International College of Surgeons (Singapore section)

Dr. Vishalkumar G. Shelat is a Senior Consultant in Hepato-Biliary and Pancreatic (HPB) Surgery at Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Singapore, with over two decades of experience in advanced open, laparoscopic, and robotic surgery. He is an accomplished clinician-academic with comprehensive expertise spanning complex HPB surgery, pancreas surgery, liver transplantation, quality improvement, and clinical ethics. Dr. Shelat holds multiple international qualifications, including fellowships from the European Board of Surgery and the International Society for Quality in Healthcare, as well as a Master’s degree in Healthcare Ethics and Law. He serves in several leadership and educational roles, including Director of the Surgical Science Training Centre and Associate Dean at NUS Medicine, and holds adjunct faculty appointments at leading medical schools in Singapore. A prolific researcher with over 280 PubMed-indexed publications and an H-index of 54, he has contributed extensively to international surgical guidelines and ethics education. His work reflects a strong commitment to surgical excellence, ethics, patient safety, and academic mentorship.

Main Areas of Interest

Surgical and Clinical Ethics in Acute Care: Application of core bioethical principles to high-stakes surgical settings, including professionalism, duty of care, empathy, and moral distress in time-critical decision-making.
Ethical Decision-Making, Consent, and Communication: Capacity assessment, informed consent in complex surgical scenarios, risk communication, management of uncertainty, prognostic ambiguity, and conflict resolution with patients, families, and care teams.
Futility, End-of-Life Care, and Palliative Integration: Conceptual and clinical frameworks for medical futility, ethical approaches to withholding and withdrawing treatment, palliative sedation, terminal discharge, and structured ethical documentation.
Patient Safety, Quality Improvement, and Accountability: Ethics of morbidity and mortality review, adverse event disclosure, “never events” versus “unthinkable events,” systems ethics, and SMC ECEG-aligned quality and safety practices.
Ethics of Innovation and Technology in Surgery: Ethical adoption of robotics, AI, simulation, and novel devices; governance of cadaveric and animal-model training; data privacy, digital health ethics, and algorithmic accountability.

Specialties

Surgery

Techniques You Will Learn

Foundations of Surgical and Clinical Ethics: Core bioethical principles, professionalism, duty of care, empathy, and ethical reasoning in acute and high-stakes surgical practice.
Ethical Decision-Making and Informed Consent: Capacity assessment, voluntariness, risk and uncertainty communication, prognostic disclosure, and management of ethical disagreements.
End-of-Life Ethics and Palliative Integration: Medical futility frameworks, withholding and withdrawing treatment, palliative sedation, terminal discharge planning, and ethical documentation.
Patient Safety, Quality, and Accountability: Ethics of morbidity and mortality review, adverse event disclosure, “never events” versus “unthinkable events,” systems ethics, and safety culture.
Ethics of Innovation and Surgical Technology: Ethical evaluation of robotics, AI, simulation, and novel devices; governance of cadaveric and animal-model training; data privacy and algorithmic accountability.

Modules

Module 1: Foundations of Surgical/Clinical Ethics

Principles of bioethics in acute care

Ethical tensions unique to high-stakes surgery

Professionalism, duty, and empathy

Module 2: Decision-Making, Consent & Communication

Capacity assessment, voluntariness, and risk communication

Managing uncertainty and prognostic ambiguity

Handling disagreement: families, teams, and institutions

Module 3: Futility, End-of-Life & Palliative Integration

Medical futility: conceptual, clinical, and policy frameworks

Withdrawal/withholding, palliative sedation, terminal discharge

Ethical documentation and communication strategies

Module 4: Safety, Quality, and Accountability

Never events vs “unthinkable events” taxonomy

Morbidity & mortality: ethics of disclosure and learning

Systems ethics, SMC ECEG-aligned practice, Soft Systems Methodology (SSM)

Module 5: Innovation & Technology Ethics in Surgery

Adoption of novel devices, robotics, AI, simulation ethics

Ethical governance of cadaveric and animal-model training

Data, privacy, and algorithmic accountability in surgery

Program Fee


Total Number of Modules	4
Time duration of Each module	90 minutes
Total Program Cost	$450

Who Can Apply

Medical trainees

Medical doctors

Surgery residents

General Surgeons

Host Details

Host Name: Vishalkumar G Shelat

Affiliation: International College of Surgeons (Singapore section)

Address: International College of Surgeons, Singapore

Website URL:

Disclaimer:It is mandatory that all applicants carry workplace liability insurance, e.g., https://www.protrip-world-liability.com (Erasmus students use this package and typically costs around 5 € per month - please check) in addition to health insurance when you join any of the onsite Trialect partnered fellowships.

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