Ryan Antiel
Ryan M. Antiel, MD, MSME
Director, Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities & History of Medicine
Associate Professor of Pediatric Surgery
Duke University School of Medicine
Ryan.antiel@duke.edu
Ryan M. Antiel, MD, MSME, FACS, is Director of the Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities, and History of Medicine and Associate Professor of Pediatric Surgery at Duke University School of Medicine. A pediatric surgeon and bioethicist, his work examines how medicine forms clinicians—and how bioethics and the humanities can help physicians develop the wisdom and character necessary to care well for patients.
Dr. Antiel’s scholarship spans clinician formation, pediatric and surgical ethics, and the ethical challenges created by emerging medical technologies. He has authored more than 90 peer-reviewed publications, with work appearing in the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, Pediatrics, and the Journal of Pediatric Surgery. As a Greenwall Faculty Scholar in Bioethics, his research has examined the ethical implications of artificial womb technology and parental decision-making around clinical innovation at the limits of viability.
Dr. Antiel founded the Trent Center Clinical Ethics Fellowship and The Good Surgeon, a longitudinal program exploring how surgical training shapes character and how the humanities, reflection, and community can help clinicians sustain the virtues necessary to practice medicine well. His broader work seeks to create opportunities for formation across the continuum of medical education, from students through residents and practicing physicians.
Clinically, Dr. Antiel practices pediatric surgery at Duke Children’s, caring for children with a broad range of congenital and acquired surgical conditions. His experience caring for children and families facing serious illness and difficult decisions informs both his scholarship and his work in bioethics.
Dr. Antiel received his medical degree from the Mayo Clinic School of Medicine and completed his general surgery residency at the Mayo Clinic. During residency, he completed a postdoctoral fellowship in medical ethics and earned a master’s degree in medical ethics at the University of Pennsylvania. He subsequently completed fellowship training in pediatric surgery at Washington University in St. Louis.