Piroska Kopar, MD, MBA, FACS, is a trauma and critical care surgeon with dual expertise in trauma and acute care surgery, surgical and cardiothoracic critical care, and clinical ethics. Her practice focuses on delivering goal-concordant, patient-centered care—ensuring that treatment decisions align with each patient’s values, identity, and definition of well-being.
Clinical Expertise
Dr. Kopar’s clinical interests include:
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Trauma surgery and acute care surgery
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Emergency general surgery
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Surgical critical care
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Cardiothoracic critical care
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Ethics in surgical and critical care decision-making
Education and Training
Dr. Kopar earned her undergraduate degree from St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland, where she completed the Great Books Program, cultivating a foundation in philosophy and humanistic inquiry. She received the prestigious Robert W. Woodruff Scholarship to attend Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia.
Following medical school, Dr. Kopar completed general and cardiac surgery training at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in New Hampshire, and clinical fellowships in trauma and surgical critical care at Yale School of Medicine in Connecticut. She later pursued academic and research fellowships in medical ethics at Harvard Medical School’s Division of Medical Ethics, and completed the Surgical Education Research Fellowship through the Association for Surgical Education.
Dr. Kopar holds an Executive MBA from the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis and is currently earning a Master’s Degree in Ethics from the University of Oxford Department of Philosophy.
Leadership and Academic Roles
Dr. Kopar is the founder and director of the Ethics of Surgery (EthoS) Fellowship at the Association for Surgical Education, a pioneering academic fellowship exploring ethical dimensions in surgical care and training. She also served as President of the Consortium for Surgical Ethics for seven years and currently serves on the Editorial Board of BMC Medical Ethics.
Her leadership bridges the fields of surgery, ethics, and education—helping shape national conversations about moral reasoning, fiduciary duty, and surgeon-patient relationships in modern healthcare.
Research Interests
Dr. Kopar’s research explores medical ethics as applied to surgical practice, focusing on:
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Surgical informed consent
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Fiduciary responsibility and clinical research ethics
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Ethics of transplantation surgery
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Surgical futility and the limits of intervention
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Surrogate decision-making in surgery
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Surgical “buy-in” and patient autonomy
Her work examines how the transformative nature of surgery intersects with moral and philosophical questions about trust, responsibility, and human vulnerability.
Personal Philosophy and Interests
Dr. Kopar describes herself as a “lifelong student of human nature,” drawing inspiration from literature, philosophy, and the moral psychology of caregiving. Like Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot, she brings intellectual curiosity and empathy to understanding both patients and the human condition.