Hastings Center Research Scholar Virginia Brown will be on a panel with colleagues at the 2026 annual ASBH Conference.

 Location: JW Grand Ballroom 3 (Third Floor)

Panelists: Sophia L. Schott; Virginia Brown; Claire Horner 

Abstract: As we endure a crisis of trust in science and medicine, bioethicists and other thought leaders have urged a focus on trustworthiness of the institutions that compose science and medicine. After all, we should only trust trustworthy entities – organizations’ insisting “just trust us” does not build trust. This panel will discuss and critique answers to the question: what makes a healthcare organization trustworthy? Each panelist has explored this question from the perspective of a specific stakeholder group. Panelist 1 has explored this question with regard to public stakeholders: what makes healthcare organizations trustworthy to the publics they serve? Panelist 2 has explored this question with regard to healthcare workers: what makes healthcare organizations trustworthy to its employees? Panelist 3 has explored this question with regard to communities that are invited to engage in research: what makes a healthcare organization trustworthy to community-engaged research partners? Each of the panelists will present their analysis and findings. We will leave ample time to identify and discuss both common aspects of trustworthiness, revealing core elements of trustworthiness, and differences in how trustworthiness is conceptualized and practiced with regard to different stakeholder groups, revealing how trustworthiness shape-shifts depending on the nature of trusting relationships. This topic is important because trust in healthcare organizations has declined among all stakeholder groups discussed, to the detriment of patients, staff, and communities. Reversing this trend will require both conceptual and practice-based knowledge of how healthcare organizations become trustworthy, a necessary first step to building trust.

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