Workshop "Ethics guidelines for public health responses during epidemics"
Background
In order to develop a comprehensive World Health Organization (WHO) guidance document on ethical Issues in relation to epidemic and outbreak response across a board range of diseases, this first meeting of a network of experts will be held in Dublin City University (DCU) in Dublin, Ireland. The WHO Global Health Ethics Unit has invited experts from different regions of the world and from a variety of backgrounds in both ethics and infectious diseases and outbreak response to meet on May 25-26, 2015. Its purpose will be to review the ‘lessons learnt’ from the current Ebola epidemic, identify the need for additional scoping reviews, discuss the methodology for the development of ethics guidance with broad applicability, and identify the main ethical issues to be addressed. The meeting is funded jointly by WHO, an EU-funded COST Action on Disaster Bioethics chaired from DCU, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and 3U Global Health, a research collaboration involving DCU.
This provision agenda will be finalised upon completion of background literature reviews currently being conducted by WHO. In addition, WHO has other expert groups scheduled to meet in early May whose findings will feed into the final agenda. On the basis of these reviews, individual participants may be asked to make short informal presentations based on their expertise or experiences. A final agenda will be circulated to all participants the week before the meeting on May 25-26.
Day 1 (Monday, May 25, 2015)
Session 1 Chair: Dónal O’Mathúna | |
0900 - 0930 |
Welcome (click for slides) |
0930 - 1000 | Ethics and infectious disease outbreaks (click for slides) Ross Upshur |
1000 - 1030 | Scientifically relevant issues in relation to epidemics (click for slides) Rita Helfand |
1030 - 1100 | Epidemics: What is relevant for health practitioners/clinical researcher? (click for slides) Alistair Nichol |
1100 - 1130 | Coffee break |
1130 - 1200 | Why is it important to develop ethics guidelines for epidemics? Jeremy Farrar |
1200 - 1230 | The Ebola epidemic: Ethics guidance (click for slides) Vânia de la Fuente-Núñez |
1230 - 1300 | Interplay of good science and ethics in clinical trials during epidemics (click for slides) Edward Cox |
1300 - 1400 | Lunch |
Session 2 Chair: Jennifer Gibson | |
1400 - 1430 | Existing guidance on ethical in the public health response to epidemics (click for slides) Carl Coleman |
1430 - 1530 | Panel Discussion: Lessons to be learned from EVD. Was EVD really different from other epidemics? What are the new challenges? Panelists: Fred Hayden, Margaret Fitzgerald, Philippe Calain, Jeremy Farrar, Annick Antierens, Edward Cox Chair of Panel: Heather Draper |
1530 - 1600 | Coffee Break |
1600 -1630 | Mapping ethics guidance to the type of epidemic Moderators: Jónína Einarsdóttir & Markus Kirchner |
1630 - 1730 | Creating a framework for a typology Moderators: Farhat Moazam and Maria Van Kerkhove |
1800 | Public Performance: Storytelling and health communication (click to watch via YouTube) Usifu Jalloh |
1830 | Public Lecture: Health Research in the context of rapidly emerging public health threats (click to watch lecture via YouTube) Professor Jeremy Farrar, Director of the Wellcome Trust |
Day 2 (Tuesday, May 26, 2015):
Session 3 Chair: Ross Upshur | |
0900 - 0930 | Re-cap of day 1 Carl Coleman |
0930 - 1030 | Should ethics guidance for epidemics differ from that for natural disasters? How would the framework change in an “all hazards” approach? Open discussion moderated by Dónal O’Mathúna |
1030 - 1100 | Defining the structure and content of future guidance Moderators: Aminu Yakubu and Lisa Schwartz |
1100 - 1130 | Coffee Break |
1130 - 1230 | Mapping existing guidance within the typology and determining where guidance is lacking. Small Group work |
1230 - 1400 | Lunch |
Session 4 Chair: Michael Selgelid | |
1400 - 1500 | Report to plenary and discussion Chair to lead discussion |
1500 -1530 | Coffee break |
1530 - 1630 | Next Steps and development of a work-plan and timeline |