Aviva Katz

Biography

Aviva Katz, MD is Associate Professor of Surgery, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, where she also provides clinical ethics education to medical students and residents, and is a surgeon in the Department of Pediatric General and Thoracic Surgery at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC. Dr. Katz serves as the director of the ethics consultation service at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and as vice chair of the University of Pittsburgh’s Internal Review Board. In April 2014, she became Director of the Consortium Ethics Program at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Katz is chair of the Committee on Bioethics for the American Academy of Pediatrics, and a member and chair of the Ethics and Advocacy Committee for the American Pediatric Surgical Association.She is also an active member of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH), serving on the Clinical Ethics Consultation Affairs Standing Committee which is currently developing standards to certify health care ethics consultations and/or accrediting programs that train/educate health care ethics consultants. She has published extensively on burn wound excision and other surgical issues, indications for fetal and neonatal surgery, Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO), and issues in pediatric transplantation. She has lectured on a variety of ethics topics, including ethical issues in critical care medicine, DNR orders during surgical interventions, and resource allocation in the treatment of childhood and adolescent obesity. Her current research interests include a qualitative assessment of the effects of embedding an ethicist on rounds in both the pediatric and neonatal intensive care units. Aviva Katz received a BS in 1980, focused in biomedical science, from the City University of New York City College and her MD in 1982 from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. She successfully defended her thesis entitled "Resisting Resistance to Change: A Critical Analysis of the Structure of Surgical Residency Training Programs" on November 30, 2012 and received her MA in Bioethics degree in December. Dr. Katz is Assistant Professor of Surgery, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, where she also provides clinical ethics education to medical students and residents, and is a physician in the Department of Pediatric General and Thoracic Surgery at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, where she serves on the Ethics Committee and the Ethics Consultation Service. She has published extensively on burn wound excision and other surgical issues, indications for fetal and neonatal surgery, Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO), and issues in pediatric transplantation. She has lectured on a variety of ethics topics, including ethical issues in critical care medicine, DNR orders during surgical interventions, and resource allocation in the treatment of childhood and adolescent obesity. Aviva Katz, MD is Associate Professor of Surgery, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, where she also provides clinical ethics education to medical students and residents, and is a surgeon in the Department of Pediatric General and Thoracic Surgery at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC. Dr. Katz serves as the director of the ethics consultation service at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and as vice chair of the University of Pittsburgh’s Internal Review Board. In April 2014, she became Director of the Consortium Ethics Program at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Katz is chair of the Committee on Bioethics for the American Academy of Pediatrics, and a member and chair of the Ethics and Advocacy Committee for the American Pediatric Surgical Association.She is also an active member of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH), serving on the Clinical Ethics Consultation Affairs Standing Committee which is currently developing standards to certify health care ethics consultations and/or accrediting programs that train/educate health care ethics consultants. She has published extensively on burn wound excision and other surgical issues, indications for fetal and neonatal surgery, Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO), and issues in pediatric transplantation. She has lectured on a variety of ethics topics, including ethical issues in critical care medicine, DNR orders during surgical interventions, and resource allocation in the treatment of childhood and adolescent obesity. Her current research interests include a qualitative assessment of the effects of embedding an ethicist on rounds in both the pediatric and neonatal intensive care units. Aviva Katz received a BS in 1980, focused in biomedical science, from the City University of New York City College and her MD in 1982 from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. She successfully defended her thesis entitled "Resisting Resistance to Change: A Critical Analysis of the Structure of Surgical Residency Training Programs" on November 30, 2012 and received her MA in Bioethics degree in December. Dr. Katz is Assistant Professor of Surgery, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, where she also provides clinical ethics education to medical students and residents, and is a physician in the Department of Pediatric General and Thoracic Surgery at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, where she serves on the Ethics Committee and the Ethics Consultation Service. She has published extensively on burn wound excision and other surgical issues, indications for fetal and neonatal surgery, Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO), and issues in pediatric transplantation. She has lectured on a variety of ethics topics, including ethical issues in critical care medicine, DNR orders during surgical interventions, and resource allocation in the treatment of childhood and adolescent obesity.

Research Interest

Burn wound excision and other surgical issues, indications for fetal and neonatal surgery,