The teaching provided an introduction to important topics, frameworks, and approaches in global health ethics literature and encouraged the development of skills to identify, analyse and propose responses to ethics and governance issues in PHP and GHR.
Reflecting on the week and the Problem-Based Learning, PBL, activity, Dr Caesar Atuire, the Ethics and Governance Lead for IHTM said,
“The week saw intensive learning and exchange of ideas, experiences, and approaches to core ethical issues in health, research, and practice. The depth of knowledge and experience of the various lecturers were enriching.
During the PBL presentations, the students demonstrated a good grasp of how to carefully weigh ethical issues when designing and implementing programmes in public health and health research.”
Students working in groups presented their PBL cases which were chosen to highlight the central ethical challenges confronted by health providers, community outreach workers, administrators, researchers, and health policy makers in daily practice. The cases were designed to engage the central ethical themes of the week and to encourage critical thinking with real world scenarios.
The PBL cases were:
- Implementation of PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) for prevention of HIV across Uganda, Kenya and South Africa
- Designing observational research on social and biomedical determinants of health in hospitalised malnourished children under 5 years of age in Ghana.
- A 5-year longitudinal cohort study on malaria immunity in children in Papua New Guinea