Evolving Topics in Medicine: Panel Discussion Series

Yale School of Medicine’s (YSM) Office of Collaborative Excellence is sponsoring Evolving Topics in Medicine, a new series of panel discussions that will bring together expert researchers, clinicians, and scholars, to bring different views on evolving questions in science and medicine. The inaugural event will take place during the 2026-27 academic year.

The series is a part of YSM’s Strategic Plan goal to, “in the spirit of promoting curiosity and critical inquiry, increase opportunities to engage in meaningful and respectful dialogue on controversial [or evolving] topics in medicine” which was addressed in Dean Nancy J. Brown’s Beyond Sterling Hall message on July 29, 2026. The series complements the Perspectives in Medicine series organized by YSM medical students.

In close partnership with Darin Latimore, MD, deputy dean for collaborative excellence, the Evolving Topics in Medicine initiative will be led by Michael Strambler, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry and director of child wellbeing and education research at The Consultation Center at Yale in the Department of Psychiatry.

Evolving Topics in Medicine will be structured as a panel discussion among approximately four speakers with expertise and varying viewpoints on subjects where the science is not settled. Strambler says that he and Latimore envision the panels not as debates but as, “honest, good faith conversations among individuals who have done real substantive work, and who have demonstrated making credible, intellectually based arguments on these topics.”

Strambler is drawing on his training as a psychologist working primarily in school-based research on emotional learning and development for young people. This includes fostering self-regulation, tolerance, and the ability to take the perspective of another person. Over the past several years, Strambler says that in his writing, he has “advocated for more evidence-based arguments that seriously engage multiple perspectives on issues,” and he has become involved in efforts “to promote that kind of analytic thinking and the promotion of pluralism in academia.”

Strambler is currently a senior fellow at the Yale Center for Civic Thought, which encourages thoughtful public discourse and civically responsible intellectual life by hosting small-group conversations around difficult topics, designed to help students practice disagreement, curiosity, and thinking without the pressure to perform.

Latimore added that one key goal of the Evolving Topics in Medicine series is to model these skills “for the students, faculty, and staff sitting in the audience. Our hope is that they will observe a true dialogue among panelists who are demonstrating these skills” and, to quote Strambler, “engage in conversation honestly, forthrightly, passionately but respectfully, and in good faith.”

Last year, Strambler was a fellow at Heterodox Academy (HxA), a non-partisan, non-profit membership organization committed to advocating principles of viewpoint diversity and constructive disagreement in higher education. HxA’s Board Chair is Jeffrey S. Flier, MD, former dean of Harvard Medical School, and chair of HMS’s Open Inquiry Working Group, which published its report in April 2026. Flier will open the 2026-27 Perspectives for Inclusion lecture series on Oct. 26 at 4 p.m. with a talk on “open inquiry” in academic medicine.