National undergraduate medical student curriculums dedicated to the ethical practice of surgery are lacking. To that end, we propose a Surgical Ethics Online (SEO) course. SEO will be undertaken during third year medical school surgical clerkships at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine (VCU-SOM). SEO is an online collaborative educational program centered around clearly defined objectives that focus on the principles of clinical ethics. Learners will be evaluated with a pre- and post-program assessment as well as with online discussion forum evaluation. The program will be formally distributed to VCU-SOM in the fall of 2018. An abridged pilot and needs assessment instruments will be obtained in the spring of 2017
