Watch Webcast

Matt Allen, MD
Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard
Department of Anesthesiology
Thursday, January 20, 2022

OBJECTIVES

  1. Review current American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) guidelines for perioperative decision-making regarding CPR
  2. Describe trends entailing reconsideration of these guidelines
  3. Reframe the ethical issues in terms of default options
  4. Evaluate the ethical appropriateness of using “full code” as a default option in patients with existing DNR
    orders
  5. Propose an expanded approach to decision-making regarding CPR in older surgical patients as a basis
    for revision of ASA guidelines

Matt Allen is an attending anesthesiologist in the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Instructor of Anaesthesia at Harvard Medical School. He graduated from Williams College, where he majored in philosophy. After graduating from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, he completed anesthesiology residency and a fellowship in thoracic anesthesia at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He is currently a member of the ASA Committee on Ethics and has published numerous articles exploring the intersection of behavioral economics, decision-making, and clinical bioethics. He lives in Brookline, MA with his wife, Emily, their 15 month—old son, Jake, and their dog, Rosie.