Ethics and Short-term Global Health Clinical Experiences Abroad: Past. Present, and Future
February 26, 2021February 24, 2021
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- 00:02Good evening, welcome to another.
- 00:05Session in our program for biomedical ethics.
- 00:09Before I introduce our guest speaker,
- 00:12Doctor Matthews Camp,
- 00:13I want to remind you of that we will
- 00:17be having another session in two weeks.
- 00:20Where are other associate
- 00:21director Doctor Sarah Camp?
- 00:23Well, by the way,
- 00:25my name is Jack Hughes.
- 00:27I'm going to associate director of
- 00:29the Program for Biomedical Ethics,
- 00:31Doctor Mercurio.
- 00:32Your usual host is unable to attend tonight.
- 00:36In two weeks, Doctor Sarah Hall will
- 00:39be talking to us about the ethics
- 00:43ethical considerations in nutrition.
- 00:45Are we what we eat two weeks after that on,
- 00:50well, actually a few weeks after
- 00:53that on March the 24th?
- 00:56Max Jordan Tiako will be talking
- 01:00to us about the how racism shapes
- 01:06undergraduate medical education.
- 01:09Well,
- 01:10the ethical case for structural change so.
- 01:15Be sure to join us if you can.
- 01:18It is my pleasure to introduce
- 01:20tonight's speaker, Doctor Matthew Camp.
- 01:23Doctor camp Doctor Decamp is a
- 01:27graduate of Purdue University.
- 01:29He's a graduate of Duke University,
- 01:31where he obtained his medical degree
- 01:34and his doctorate in philosophy.
- 01:36He trained in internal medicine
- 01:39at the University of Michigan.
- 01:41He did a postdoctoral fellowship at
- 01:43Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
- 01:46He was a Greenwall fellow in bioethics
- 01:49and health policy in general,
- 01:51internal medicine,
- 01:52and he is currently associate professor.
- 01:55In the Center for Bioethics
- 01:57and Humanities and the Division
- 02:00of General Internal Medicine.
- 02:02He's a practicing internist.
- 02:04He's a health services researcher and
- 02:07a philosopher, Doctor Camp employees,
- 02:09both empirical and conceptual
- 02:11methods to identify and solve cutting
- 02:14edge problems at the interface of
- 02:16healthcare policy and bioethics.
- 02:18His research has emphasized specifically
- 02:21engaging patients in healthcare,
- 02:23organizational decision making,
- 02:24ethical decisions in the use of social media.
- 02:28Big data and global health.
- 02:32With a particular focus,
- 02:34as will be evidenced tonight on
- 02:38short term global health education.
- 02:42And the ethics of saying.
- 02:44Alright,
- 02:45so he is currently a Co principal
- 02:48investigator on Greenwall Foundation
- 02:49grant examining ethical issues
- 02:51arising in mass Drug Administration
- 02:54of antibiotics globally.
- 02:56For the sake of reducing childhood mortality.
- 02:59In addition,
- 03:00with funding from an NIH
- 03:03bioethics supplement,
- 03:03he has served as ethics and engagement
- 03:06advisor for the Palliative Care Research
- 03:09Cooperative Group and conducted
- 03:11research on engaging patients and families,
- 03:14and.
- 03:15End of life.
- 03:17Imperative care research.
- 03:18He is also an award winning teacher
- 03:22and mentor as I think will be
- 03:25evidenced by his presentation tonight.
- 03:28All right, back to the camp.
- 03:30We are delighted to have you
- 03:32all the way from Denver.
- 03:36Take it away, please.
- 03:37Great thank you for that introduction.
- 03:39I really appreciate the opportunity
- 03:41to talk to all of you tonight about
- 03:44short-term global health ethics.
- 03:46I'm going to. Share my screen.
- 03:51Get this going and swap it out for us.
- 03:57So again, I really appreciate
- 03:58the opportunity over the next.
- 04:00I guess hour or so and prior to the Q&A.
- 04:04I hope that explore a little bit.
- 04:07The past President,
- 04:08future of ethics and short-term
- 04:09global health clinical experiences,
- 04:11and I really hope in this presentation
- 04:13as a little something for everyone.
- 04:16You know, I hope there's
- 04:18something for philosophers who
- 04:19are interested in conceptual work,
- 04:21empirical bioethics researchers,
- 04:22medical educators,
- 04:23social scientists, and so on.
- 04:24Hope to touch on a lot of that,
- 04:27and I hope that we'll have a
- 04:29good amount of time for questions
- 04:32and answers afterwards.
- 04:34Just some housekeeping issues,
- 04:35no relevant active conflicts of interest.
- 04:37I did receive an honorarium for
- 04:39work on a paper that appears in this
- 04:42presentation from the ACP on this
- 04:44topic and my global health research
- 04:47has been funded by a couple of
- 04:49groups that death also mentioned,
- 04:51I think in the intro.
- 04:54So what I want to do today?
- 04:56Well,
- 04:57I'm hoping to give you a little
- 04:58bit of a brief background on what
- 05:00short-term global health is or
- 05:02how it's typically thought of.
- 05:04I'll describe how we got to where we are.
- 05:07That is the past.
- 05:09I'll spend some time talking
- 05:10about where we are,
- 05:12especially in terms of ethics,
- 05:14education and our thinking around
- 05:15short-term global ethics.
- 05:17And then Lastly,
- 05:18hint at where we are and where
- 05:21we should be going.
- 05:22I just as a note,
- 05:24I'll frequently use the word
- 05:26trainees in this presentation,
- 05:27but this isn't really meant to
- 05:29be only about undergraduate or
- 05:30graduate medical trainees per say.
- 05:32Think it's important to remember
- 05:34that in global health.
- 05:36Even seasoned practitioners can be
- 05:38trainees in some sense that they are
- 05:42new to the global health setting.
- 05:44So let's jump right in and
- 05:46talk about this concept.
- 05:48Them short-term global health.
- 05:50I think that classicly,
- 05:52we think of these activities as weeks
- 05:54to months long trips from a high
- 05:57income country to a lower middle
- 05:59income country to provide care.
- 06:01It certainly I was first exposed
- 06:04to short-term global health when
- 06:06I went to Honduras back in 2001.
- 06:08But I think if we look closely at
- 06:11these terms and these concepts,
- 06:13reality is more complicated.
- 06:14So let's look at short-term.
- 06:16Well,
- 06:17there's no real standard definition
- 06:18of what counts is short term,
- 06:21and in fact really interesting.
- 06:22Lee, in some of the surveys we've done,
- 06:25if you ask people what counts as short term,
- 06:28the answer is basically whatever
- 06:30is shorter than what I've done.
- 06:32So if you've been abroad for a month,
- 06:35a couple weeks, a short term,
- 06:37six months amonth is short term.
- 06:40A year, well,
- 06:41six months is still a short term
- 06:44global health experience.
- 06:46Let's look at the next concept
- 06:48of global Global.
- 06:49As you can imagine,
- 06:50is also kind of hard to define
- 06:53because we might think about issues
- 06:55abroad versus underserved areas.
- 06:57Locally that will come up in
- 06:59the presentation today and this
- 07:01mantra of local is global.
- 07:03How how global is global.
- 07:04When we talk about short-term global
- 07:07health activities and Lastly, of course,
- 07:09health health is a complicated concept.
- 07:11When we talk about engaging
- 07:13in healthy activities,
- 07:14is it health care delivery only?
- 07:16Is it public health versus
- 07:19education and so on.
- 07:20So a lot of complexity.
- 07:22I think around the definitions of
- 07:25short term global health experiences.
- 07:28Now, short term global health experiences
- 07:30are sometimes in the news and not
- 07:32always for the best of reasons.
- 07:34To give you a couple of news
- 07:36stories over the past several years.
- 07:38Here's a story about an American
- 07:40with no medical training.
- 07:41Ran a Center for malnourished kids in Uganda,
- 07:44and is accused in the story of
- 07:46contributing to the deaths of around 105.
- 07:49An article in the Scientific American
- 07:52about the trouble with medical voluntourism
- 07:54one thing that sometimes one term that
- 07:57is sometimes used to describe this activity.
- 08:00Or Lastly,
- 08:01this somewhat cheeky article called
- 08:03#instagramming Africa,
- 08:04the narcissism of Global Voluntourism,
- 08:06and if you look closely at the lower right,
- 08:10lower right,
- 08:11you'll see that the Onion mocks
- 08:14voluntourism joking that a six day
- 08:16visit to a rural African village
- 08:18can quote completely change a
- 08:21woman's Facebook profile picture.
- 08:23So a lot of controversies sometimes
- 08:25bubbling in to the popular press
- 08:28around short-term global health.
- 08:30Activities.
- 08:32If we look more academically,
- 08:34we can see that there's been somewhat
- 08:36of a meteoric rise of interest
- 08:38in this type of global health.
- 08:40This is just a graph showing
- 08:42citations by year using the medical
- 08:44subject heading medical missions.
- 08:45We might say this is an archaic
- 08:48subject heading,
- 08:48but it is what it is and you can see.
- 08:52Great interest,
- 08:53increasing interest in short term
- 08:55global health over the years with
- 08:58probably an interesting story to
- 09:00be told about why there are these
- 09:02blips around 1970 in the 1990s,
- 09:04perhaps around HIV AIDS and then
- 09:07exploding into the 1st and 2nd
- 09:09decade of the 21st century.
- 09:11So a lot of interest in this topic
- 09:15interested appears to be growing.
- 09:18And as many of us know,
- 09:20we know that many medical students
- 09:22continue to participate in
- 09:23global health electives,
- 09:25even if we've seen a decline recently.
- 09:27These are data from the medical
- 09:30school Graduation Questionnaire
- 09:31where there is a question about
- 09:33activities participated in one of
- 09:35which is a global health experience,
- 09:37and you can see more than 30%
- 09:39in 2015 reported participating
- 09:41in a global health elective.
- 09:43Now that had been actually arise,
- 09:45an increase over the past five or ten years.
- 09:48In advance of 2015,
- 09:50and then we've actually seen a
- 09:53little bit of a decline since
- 09:552015 down to around one in four.
- 09:58Now of course, one in four is still.
- 10:00One in four.
- 10:01And that's a significant number
- 10:03across the country,
- 10:04emphasizing why we need to think
- 10:06about ethics in these activities.
- 10:08Why we're seeing this trend reversal,
- 10:10I think it's hard to know.
- 10:12We'll probably see, again,
- 10:14a little bit of a decrease in
- 10:16participation because of covid,
- 10:18and this is just something we'll
- 10:21have to follow overtime.
- 10:23What about short-term global global health?
- 10:25By the broader numbers,
- 10:27who really lack precise estimates?
- 10:29I think their challenge because of
- 10:31disseminated, unregulated nature
- 10:33of many global health activities,
- 10:35but still most people believe
- 10:37short-term global health activities are
- 10:39completed by hundreds of thousands,
- 10:41if not millions of volunteers annually.
- 10:44They likely involve hundreds of millions or
- 10:47even several billion dollars US each year.
- 10:50They frequently include research
- 10:51and or service activities,
- 10:53both clinical and non clinical
- 10:56or public health alike.
- 10:58As I mentioned, they range in
- 11:00duration from a few weeks to months.
- 11:02And they really are a global phenomenon.
- 11:05We're talking a lot about the
- 11:07US pier tonight, but in fact,
- 11:0940% of medical students in the United
- 11:11Kingdom engage in this sort of an experience.
- 11:15So it really is a global issue
- 11:18underscoring the importance of making
- 11:20sure we addressed ethics when it
- 11:22comes to short-term global health.
- 11:24That's a super fast overview and summary
- 11:27of what short-term activities are,
- 11:29and I want to shift and talk about the past.
- 11:33How do we get to where we are today
- 11:35in our thinking in our activities
- 11:39around short-term global health?
- 11:41Well, we may see this as a new phenomenon,
- 11:44but in fact if we trace the history
- 11:47of short-term global health,
- 11:48we can quickly get back to medical
- 11:51missions of the 19th century.
- 11:53And while I'm not a historian,
- 11:55you look at this literature.
- 11:56I think there are three themes that emerged.
- 11:59One is that these activities
- 12:01are frequently values driven.
- 12:03That is,
- 12:03the work is often motivated by appeals
- 12:05to ethical values like need for
- 12:08duty or social justice, and so on.
- 12:12A second is the concept of
- 12:14training involvement,
- 12:15really from the 19th century to HIV
- 12:18aids the 20th students and trainees have
- 12:21really always been participating in
- 12:23these sorts of short-term global health.
- 12:26Medical mission type activities.
- 12:28So although we emphasize the numbers today,
- 12:31this really isn't a new phenomenon.
- 12:34And Lastly,
- 12:35a theme of complex and can
- 12:37sometimes conflicting dynamics.
- 12:38This is a picture of Albert Schweitzer,
- 12:41well known for building hospitals in Gabon.
- 12:43But if you look closely at some
- 12:46of the writings of people around
- 12:48this time in this history you
- 12:50can see elements of service with
- 12:52undercurrents of racism and colonialism.
- 12:55And I circled this just to highlight
- 12:57it because we'll come back to it.
- 13:00Come back to these concepts later
- 13:02in the talk.
- 13:06Now when I summarize the pass,
- 13:08I actually like to think that
- 13:11I'd like to emphasize what I see
- 13:13as evidence of moral progress.
- 13:15A shift in how we think
- 13:18about short-term activities,
- 13:19from altruism to charity, to justice.
- 13:21Let's look at this in detail.
- 13:24Altruism. We often think of,
- 13:26is giving something away at cost to oneself.
- 13:29And that's really important right
- 13:31to for something to be altruistic,
- 13:33it needs to come at cost to oneself.
- 13:37But when it came to short-term
- 13:39global health activities abroad,
- 13:40people started to realize wait a minute.
- 13:44Individuals benefit from these
- 13:45activities from an education perspective
- 13:47and experiential perspective,
- 13:49and attitudinal perspective.
- 13:51So maybe what this really is about
- 13:54is something more akin to charity,
- 13:56which we think of as giving something away.
- 14:01But then there's another pause
- 14:03when we realized wait a minute,
- 14:05and some of these activities
- 14:07as will soon learn.
- 14:08Individuals can often cause harm.
- 14:10You saw that in some of the news stories
- 14:12about voluntourism in the situation
- 14:14of the malnourished kids in Uganda,
- 14:17and as individuals can cause harm.
- 14:19Maybe we need to think about
- 14:21this a little differently,
- 14:22as something like justice that is
- 14:24giving to others what they are do.
- 14:27And I hope to suggest over
- 14:29the next slide or two.
- 14:31Is it really?
- 14:32We really have made a shift from
- 14:34altruism to charity to justice,
- 14:36and I'll leave as a question mark
- 14:39food for the end of the talk,
- 14:41what the next stage of moral
- 14:44progress might be.
- 14:46Now,
- 14:46if I can convince you of this shift
- 14:49from charity to altruism to justice,
- 14:52this actually could be pretty important.
- 14:55From the standpoint of philosophical ethics,
- 14:57because we think of obligations
- 14:59of charity somewhat different
- 15:01than obligations of justice,
- 15:02obligations of charity are imperfect,
- 15:04that is,
- 15:05they are not stringent for his
- 15:08obligations of justice are perfect.
- 15:10That is, we're fully obliged to do them.
- 15:13We tend to have significant discretion.
- 15:16Over obligations of charity,
- 15:18how much to give what to give,
- 15:21but less discretion over
- 15:23obligations of justice.
- 15:25And then Lastly charity.
- 15:26It could be said sometimes sees
- 15:29the recipient or the receiver as
- 15:31an object of charity as opposed
- 15:33to a subject of justice.
- 15:35Now here subject is being used
- 15:37in a slightly different way than
- 15:40we might think of as a research
- 15:42subject in research ethics.
- 15:44This is subject as a stance
- 15:46of subjects of justice,
- 15:48which is different than being an object now.
- 15:51As you can imagine, philosophers disagree.
- 15:55About this good and my own PhD advisor,
- 15:58Alan Buchanan.
- 15:58Some have said that, in fact,
- 16:01if we institutionalized obligations of
- 16:02charity, they would be just as stringent,
- 16:05just as perfect as obligation of justice.
- 16:08But of course,
- 16:09that's not exactly the world we live in,
- 16:12and so this shift,
- 16:13I think,
- 16:14may be important in how we think
- 16:16about the ethics of global
- 16:19health short-term activities.
- 16:20And I think one simple way of
- 16:23viewing this distinction and this
- 16:25progress over the past 20 years is a
- 16:27rejection of the something
- 16:29is better than nothing.
- 16:31Approach to global health ethics.
- 16:33I think a really important change,
- 16:35a change that I've seen when
- 16:37I teach students and trainees
- 16:38and offer training sessions
- 16:40about short-term global health.
- 16:42I feel like I've really seen this
- 16:44shift away from the idea that
- 16:47something is better than nothing.
- 16:51How about a bit more of history
- 16:53and more descriptive history
- 16:55of how we got to where we are?
- 16:57This is an abridged history.
- 16:59It's not complete, but I think in the
- 17:01early 1990s and early 2000s there was
- 17:04a clear recognition of ethics related
- 17:06to short-term global health activities.
- 17:08In especially this concept
- 17:10of unintended harm.
- 17:11So if we look at the medical literature,
- 17:14you'll see articles in JAMA in the New
- 17:16England Journal articles I contributed to.
- 17:19Based on my experience in
- 17:21Honduras and even Health Affairs.
- 17:23And I think this quote on the lower
- 17:26left illustrates it quite well.
- 17:28This is from the New England Journal.
- 17:30There's profound need in the
- 17:32community or right now.
- 17:33The vast amount of donated time,
- 17:35energy, and money does more to
- 17:37Stoke the egos of the Americans.
- 17:40Clear expression of unintentional harms.
- 17:41Questionable motives when it comes,
- 17:43their short term global health
- 17:45activities need were appearing,
- 17:46I think, importantly,
- 17:48in the mainstream medical literature.
- 17:51What issues were flagged?
- 17:52Well,
- 17:53there were a lot of them differences
- 17:55in cultural norms,
- 17:56especially around gender and how
- 17:58those should be managed abroad.
- 18:01What does consent look like
- 18:02in different cultures?
- 18:03What are the unintentional harm such as
- 18:06side effects of medications we might give
- 18:08when it's a clinical experience abroad?
- 18:11Is it OK to do things abroad
- 18:13that you wouldn't do at home?
- 18:14We'll talk about that a little bit later.
- 18:16What are the burdens on the host?
- 18:19For example, the need for translation,
- 18:21the need for airport transportation.
- 18:23It could take away from the host,
- 18:26usual obligations there
- 18:27in the local community.
- 18:29What about this savior complex?
- 18:31The idea of saviors coming from
- 18:33a high income country to a lower
- 18:36middle income country to save the
- 18:38day and come in and swoop in.
- 18:40As some might see a savior complex to be.
- 18:45How about sustainability?
- 18:46Is this just a one time treatment
- 18:48for a longer term problem?
- 18:50What happens after the team leaves?
- 18:53What about the fungibility of resources?
- 18:55Is it better that I went to Honduras,
- 18:58or should my plane ticket had been
- 19:00spent instead on a donation to an NGO
- 19:02or a local organization that could
- 19:04provide services in the community already?
- 19:07What about different standards of care?
- 19:09And so on.
- 19:10So lots of issues being flagged
- 19:12in these anecdotal reports,
- 19:14case level reports about the ethics
- 19:16of short term global health,
- 19:17and let's look at one of these in detail.
- 19:21This issue of standards of care.
- 19:23A year or two ago,
- 19:25a friend of mine actually sent me a
- 19:27text message and this is the way it looked.
- 19:30But I tell you I'm in Ethiopia
- 19:32when I respond.
- 19:33No, he says anyway, Med group here.
- 19:35Wondering if we should use expired
- 19:37meds one month old we brought them.
- 19:40I'm sure you ethics guys have
- 19:41some view on that and I respond.
- 19:44So you're asking,
- 19:45is it OK to use expired medications?
- 19:47You could imagine being abroad
- 19:49on the clinical outreach trip
- 19:50and you see a patient.
- 19:52Maybe they have a bacterial infection.
- 19:54You only have one antibiotic with you,
- 19:56but it's expired and the
- 19:58question here what are the?
- 20:00Yes, I'm using expired
- 20:02medications in this setting.
- 20:04Is it only about whether
- 20:06it works technically?
- 20:08Is only about whether the community
- 20:10is informed and as chosen or said.
- 20:12It's OK to use?
- 20:13Or is it about none of these things?
- 20:17Now this is a really interesting
- 20:19case because I think it's an
- 20:21example of this pervasive problem of
- 20:23defining standards in global health.
- 20:25The historical legacy of HIV trials,
- 20:27rotavirus vaccine treatment versus
- 20:29prevention of HIV in Africa,
- 20:30and so on.
- 20:31I think weigh heavily in how
- 20:33we think about standards,
- 20:35but there are also more recent
- 20:37debates about the use of less
- 20:40expensive or less effective
- 20:41medications to an article in The
- 20:44Lancet from just a few years ago.
- 20:46Put on the spectrum.
- 20:47No one hand bioethicist appeals to
- 20:50the greatest good for the greatest
- 20:53number and perhaps informed choice
- 20:55justifying the use of less expensive or
- 20:58less effective medications globally.
- 21:00On the other hand,
- 21:02groups like MSF or Doctors Without Borders,
- 21:05criticizing what they described
- 21:07as the ethics of resignation,
- 21:09that is being too quick to accept the
- 21:12status quo and not demand change.
- 21:15Asking more fundamental
- 21:16structural questions about well,
- 21:17why is it the case that less effective?
- 21:21Less expensive medications
- 21:23are being used globally.
- 21:26Now of course,
- 21:27for some of us the concern is not is
- 21:30just as much about how we come to a
- 21:33decision and what our actions mean,
- 21:35not just what exactly they are.
- 21:38But if we go back to my friends initial
- 21:40question about expired medications,
- 21:42it turns out that guidance has
- 21:44existed from the World Health
- 21:46Organization for many years on
- 21:48exactly this topic in this guidance.
- 21:51Generally speaking,
- 21:51says that expired medications
- 21:53should not be used.
- 21:54There are some possible exceptions
- 21:56here related to the specific health
- 21:58facilities being aware of the
- 22:00limited shelf shelf life and so on,
- 22:03but this is an example where in some
- 22:05ways there can be a disconnect between
- 22:08the way we think about things ethically,
- 22:11the way things are in practice,
- 22:13and the fact that there actually
- 22:15has been guidance on this
- 22:17particular topic for many years.
- 22:19In some cases appealing
- 22:20to notions of justice.
- 22:22Right,
- 22:22but it's just wrong to have a
- 22:24double standard and to treat people
- 22:26differently in this particular context.
- 22:30So let's go back to that story.
- 22:33That story of how we got
- 22:35to being where we are.
- 22:37We moved from the 2000s into the 2010
- 22:39where we create now ethics guidance.
- 22:42So go back to those cases.
- 22:44Many of the anecdotes
- 22:46say here are the issues.
- 22:48We need ethics guidance to help
- 22:50us think through how to manage
- 22:52these issues abroad, and in fact,
- 22:55the academic community responded,
- 22:56so there was guidance promulgated by
- 22:59Pinto and Upshur on Global Health.
- 23:01Ethics for students will talk
- 23:03about that a little bit later.
- 23:05Ethics and best practice guidelines for
- 23:08training experiences in global health,
- 23:10otherwise commonly known as the weight
- 23:12guidelines and then a publication
- 23:14I recently contributed to as well
- 23:16so the academic community responds.
- 23:18And create ethics guidance to help
- 23:21us for how to conduct ourselves in
- 23:24short-term global health activities.
- 23:27In fact,
- 23:27it maybe got to a point where
- 23:29we had too much of a good thing.
- 23:32So in this review of 27 Yes 27
- 23:35published ethics guidelines,
- 23:36there was actually need to distill
- 23:38all the guidelines down into
- 23:40five basic principles,
- 23:42and this is last year at all,
- 23:44and you can see them here.
- 23:47Appropriate recruitment and preparation
- 23:48host partner that defines the program,
- 23:50including the need to be addressed.
- 23:54Sustainability and continuity.
- 23:55Respect for governance and legal
- 23:57standards and regular evaluation
- 23:59of program impact on the host.
- 24:01So five sort of core meta level
- 24:05principles that came out of the
- 24:0827 published ethics guidelines.
- 24:10Now we can go into these in detail.
- 24:12Maybe we will on the Q&A period.
- 24:15But just to point out,
- 24:16I think if you look closely
- 24:19at these principles,
- 24:20you see that they look a lot
- 24:22more like obligations of justice.
- 24:24As I described them earlier and
- 24:26they do obligations of charity,
- 24:28so again hoping to convince
- 24:30you that there's been a shift.
- 24:32Positive shift in how we think about the
- 24:36ethics of global health in the short term.
- 24:39Setting.
- 24:41So that's sometimes men
- 24:43talking about the past.
- 24:45And now I want to shift gears and talk
- 24:48about the present and and describe
- 24:50a bit more about where I think we
- 24:53are now in our thinking and our
- 24:55education about short-term global health.
- 24:58Well,
- 24:59Fortunately building on these
- 25:01ethics guidance documents there is
- 25:03now widespread recognition of the
- 25:05need to prepare and prepare for the
- 25:08ethics in short term experiences.
- 25:10This is the World Medical Association
- 25:12which a few years ago landmark
- 25:14statement encouraging and recommending
- 25:17appropriate predeparture briefings,
- 25:18which include training and ethics
- 25:21and lots of other issues now stated
- 25:24very clearly as a requirement
- 25:26for programs in short term.
- 25:28Well will help.
- 25:31So the training now exists,
- 25:33but we might ask, well, does it work?
- 25:36So one systematic review.
- 25:37A few years ago identified 17 ethics
- 25:40training resources and it found that
- 25:43most of these eight use case based learning.
- 25:46Some of the others included
- 25:47were just guidelines.
- 25:49There is really no evaluation
- 25:51above Level 3 evidence which
- 25:53they described as non randomized
- 25:55case series or cross sectional
- 25:57studies. And they noted there was an
- 26:00ethics emphasis on the following themes,
- 26:03beneficence and nonmaleficence,
- 26:04with the example being exceeding
- 26:06one's level of training.
- 26:08A theme of respect,
- 26:10avoiding posting photographs online.
- 26:12Adapting to local culture,
- 26:14example being inappropriate dress or
- 26:17different cultural norms around dress.
- 26:19Issues of justice such as Manageing
- 26:21donated resources that I mentioned
- 26:23related to drug donation guidelines.
- 26:25So there's a systematic
- 26:27review of some of these.
- 26:29These ethics training
- 26:30resources that are out there.
- 26:33Now, our own systematic qualitative
- 26:35synthesis identified 14 primary
- 26:37research studies that examined what
- 26:39trainees actually experience abroad.
- 26:40So here the question is slightly different.
- 26:43The question is,
- 26:45how much do we really know and from whom?
- 26:49In our study.
- 26:50In total there were less than 200 medical
- 26:54trainees represented in the literature.
- 26:57Think back to how many hundreds,
- 27:00thousands,
- 27:0010s of thousands people.
- 27:02Participate in these sorts of activities
- 27:04and the whole literature appears to
- 27:06be less than 200 medical trainees,
- 27:08and there's an asterisk on that
- 27:10bullet because I think this is
- 27:12changing and it's changing rapidly
- 27:14as we start to learn more about the
- 27:16types of ethics challenges that
- 27:18trainees experience abroad that,
- 27:19at least at this time of very narrow,
- 27:22I would say snapshot of who's
- 27:24represented in the literature.
- 27:26Now,
- 27:26while many ethics themes were
- 27:28well represented,
- 27:29inconsistent with some of the
- 27:31training resources, others were not.
- 27:33Sustainability was a concern that
- 27:35tends to be hard to direct to
- 27:38address in an education program.
- 27:40Issues of moral distress were
- 27:42trainees know the right thing
- 27:44to do while they're abroad,
- 27:46but because of internal or external
- 27:48constraints or unable to do the
- 27:51right thing and they experience
- 27:53distress at that time and afterwards.
- 27:56Then Lastly,
- 27:56managing issues of social hierarchy
- 27:59are real challenge for trainees
- 28:01and unfamiliar environments is
- 28:02how to manage social hierarchies
- 28:04while they are abroad.
- 28:06So a suggestion here that the
- 28:08literature is not built on a very
- 28:11robust evidence based when it
- 28:12comes to understanding the precise
- 28:15challenges that trainees may
- 28:17experience while they are abroad.
- 28:21Now I want to take a moment and
- 28:24highlight what I see as three recent
- 28:27efforts around evaluating the
- 28:28effectiveness of ethics training,
- 28:30and I'm going to start with
- 28:32the Wiscconsin sugar program.
- 28:34This is part of the simulation used for
- 28:37global away rotations or sugar program.
- 28:39These educators develop 8 paper
- 28:41based simulations that were
- 28:43used in two half day sessions.
- 28:45They evaluated it with 51 medical residents
- 28:47who found the simulations useful.
- 28:50You can see scores of.
- 28:52Nearly four and a half out of
- 28:54five on a 5 point Likert scale,
- 28:57they believed the simulations
- 28:59would change their preparation
- 29:00plans and they were reported
- 29:03experiencing significant emotions.
- 29:04I think echoing that concept of
- 29:07moral distress in this case the
- 29:10program was framed around 4 core
- 29:12emotions or four FS of frustration,
- 29:15floundering, futility, and failure.
- 29:17So here's an example of a valuating a
- 29:22ethics education program for resonance.
- 29:25Second example comes from the University
- 29:27of California at San Francisco.
- 29:30Here,
- 29:30following a modified current methodology,
- 29:32the educators developed simulation training.
- 29:34These were 10 minute cases involving actors,
- 29:37and they had them in a few
- 29:40different case scenarios.
- 29:41Scope of practice.
- 29:43Responding to corruption being
- 29:45privacy in the setting of HIV
- 29:49and obtaining informed consent,
- 29:51this evaluation involved 53
- 29:54participants in 2013 and 14.
- 29:57Who believed the simulations were effective,
- 29:59thought they were used.
- 30:00Colon made them more aware of ethics issues.
- 30:03They reported that simulation training was
- 30:05likely more effective than other approaches,
- 30:08and they perceived interesting Lee that
- 30:10the scenarios didn't teach right or wrong,
- 30:13but instead were helping them think
- 30:16through a process of decision making rather
- 30:19than teaching one single right answer.
- 30:22Our third example comes from Yale.
- 30:25I don't know if Tracy is
- 30:27on the seminar today,
- 30:28but want to highlight Yale activities
- 30:31in this regard because it is one
- 30:33of the three I think major examples
- 30:36in the literature.
- 30:37So in this situation,
- 30:38a pre post evaluation was done of a 90
- 30:42minute pace based ethics workshop involved.
- 30:4482 medical students who undertook
- 30:46electives at 16 different
- 30:48international sites from 2012 to 2015.
- 30:50What did they find?
- 30:52Well improve self reported outcomes
- 30:54such as a sense of preparedness and
- 30:56ability to find ethics domains to find
- 30:59someone they could contact and so on.
- 31:01Nearly 2/3 of those who took the
- 31:03Post Trip survey reported having
- 31:05actually experienced an ethics
- 31:07dilemma while they were abroad.
- 31:09Now, of course,
- 31:10some of us look at these
- 31:13data and suggest is 2/3.
- 31:15The right number of people that
- 31:17should report having experienced
- 31:18a dilemma should be higher.
- 31:20Should it be lower or what do we
- 31:22really expect that answer to be?
- 31:24But nevertheless, 2/3 reported,
- 31:26having experienced in it dilemma.
- 31:28And finally, after this ethics training,
- 31:30students felt they were primed
- 31:33to recognize ethics dilemmas.
- 31:34So three important examples
- 31:37there in the literature.
- 31:39No,
- 31:39I'm going to share with you
- 31:41something that we haven't published
- 31:42about our own evaluation of
- 31:44ethics and globalhealth.org,
- 31:45which is a case based series
- 31:47that I helped develop.
- 31:49And this is because it's a cautionary tale.
- 31:52Here are some domains we evaluated in a
- 31:55pre post format related to this curriculum.
- 31:59Confidence strategies and knowledge and let's
- 32:01look closely at these answers pre to post.
- 32:04You can see participants really
- 32:06felt an increase in confidence.
- 32:08I know how to deal with ethical issues
- 32:11if they arise nearly doubles right?
- 32:14Pre to post.
- 32:15Almost everyone feels like they have
- 32:18confidence in dealing with ethical issues if
- 32:21they arise during a global health experience.
- 32:25Look closely below.
- 32:26Look at the percentage correct on a five
- 32:30question ethics test that we created.
- 32:33Ethics tests are forced hard to create and we
- 32:36can debate what counts as ethics knowledge.
- 32:39But in any case, in our own evaluation,
- 32:42no change in knowledge.
- 32:44So what did our curriculum appear to
- 32:47do radically increased confidence.
- 32:49Didn't change knowledge and that caused us
- 32:52to really stop and think what's the goal?
- 32:56What exactly are we trying to do?
- 32:59We expect confidence to decrease
- 33:01after a simple 10 case curriculum.
- 33:03And knowledge to increase or
- 33:05remain unchanged.
- 33:06What really should be the goal
- 33:08of our ethics training?
- 33:09What domains matter?
- 33:10How do we measure them and
- 33:12what should we see?
- 33:14So really cause us to pause and are
- 33:17thinking about our own case series.
- 33:20So what are the gaps that I think come
- 33:23about based on where we are now and
- 33:26where we are now in ethics training?
- 33:28Well,
- 33:28I still think it's true that
- 33:30limited numbers of trainees have
- 33:32informed the existing literature,
- 33:33particularly in light of the many
- 33:36thousands to go abroad each year.
- 33:38I think that you probably notice
- 33:40most of the evaluations involve
- 33:42self reported or perceived outcomes
- 33:45rather than hard outcomes.
- 33:47Do people perceive that they will be
- 33:49able to manage ethics strategies better?
- 33:52Do they like the curriculum?
- 33:54And so on.
- 33:55These are the types of outcomes
- 33:57we've seen in the literature.
- 33:59And as I mentioned there,
- 34:01at the end there may actually
- 34:03be some ambivalence about what
- 34:05we should be seeing as outcomes.
- 34:07Do we want more or less confidence
- 34:10as a result of the curricula that we
- 34:13develop related to short-term global health?
- 34:16So I would say that at best,
- 34:17if we took a step back.
- 34:19And thought about the levels of evidence
- 34:22of where we are in ethics education,
- 34:25training.
- 34:25I think we're pretty low level,
- 34:27probably around the level of a
- 34:30case series regarding ethical
- 34:32challenges in their management.
- 34:34So although to this point in the
- 34:36story I do want you to remember,
- 34:39I think significant progress has been made.
- 34:42I think there are some significant
- 34:44questions remaining that we
- 34:46would would help to address.
- 34:48And that's where I want to go in
- 34:51this third and last section is
- 34:53the future we started in the past.
- 34:56We said where we are now.
- 34:58The question is where are we
- 35:00going in this section?
- 35:01I want to describe maybe three
- 35:03challenges for the future of
- 35:05short-term global health ethics.
- 35:08Challenge number one.
- 35:10What counts is success.
- 35:13At the moment, I think there's actually
- 35:16little consensus on what would count
- 35:18as success for ethics evaluation.
- 35:20Is it ethics knowledge?
- 35:22How we describe knowledge?
- 35:24What about attitudes?
- 35:25What about behaviors do we expect
- 35:28to see different observed behaviors
- 35:31among trainees at home or abroad?
- 35:34Are we trying to teach substantive right
- 35:37or wrong or moral decision process like
- 35:40a process of decision making that we
- 35:43see in The Who Drug Donation program?
- 35:45Or maybe it's something bigger.
- 35:47Maybe what we want are actual outcomes
- 35:50of programs that we'd like to think that
- 35:53ethics training means that a short term,
- 35:56global health or a global health
- 35:59program in general turns out to be
- 36:02more successful or more effective
- 36:04at improving global HealthEquity.
- 36:06Unfortunately, at present,
- 36:07there's actually little evidence
- 36:09beyond case reports.
- 36:11An important individual case examples
- 36:13that short-term global health actually
- 36:15results in improved global health.
- 36:17This is a systematic review
- 36:20from several years ago,
- 36:21or in fact,
- 36:22this was the finding that there
- 36:24was little evidence that short-term
- 36:27medical service trips contributed to
- 36:30longer term global health outcomes.
- 36:32Again to note.
- 36:33There are exceptions and we can
- 36:36all think of programs that have
- 36:38been highly successful,
- 36:40but this is of course a systematic review.
- 36:43It's occurring more at that aggregate level.
- 36:48Now about 10 years ago there was active
- 36:50debate in medical ethics and professionalism.
- 36:53Many of you probably recall
- 36:55this generally about whether we
- 36:57should be focusing on behaviors.
- 36:59Or character or education,
- 37:00or apprenticeship, is the focus of medical
- 37:03ethics to promote certain behaviors.
- 37:04Or is it character? And so on.
- 37:06This slide I have some articles on
- 37:08one side of the line that are more
- 37:11behavioral and on the right side of
- 37:13the line or some articles pushing back
- 37:15and saying no medical ethics really is
- 37:18about character and I think this debate
- 37:21turns out to be relevant for the way
- 37:23we think of ethics and global health.
- 37:26So in some ways,
- 37:27the classical bioethics approach,
- 37:29I would say,
- 37:30can be a little bit behavioral,
- 37:32and we see this in the weight guidelines.
- 37:36We see this in the position
- 37:38paper that I helped Co author,
- 37:40where we implement or operationalize
- 37:42these bioethics principles of respect of
- 37:45beneficent and a justice of both types,
- 37:47distributive and procedural.
- 37:48We tend to think of these
- 37:50as behavioral outcomes,
- 37:52as what is being done maybe
- 37:54a little bit about how it's.
- 37:57Being done,
- 37:57but certainly around what are risks
- 38:00and benefits way our benefits
- 38:02maximized and risk minimize.
- 38:04Are we obtaining informed consent?
- 38:06How informed,
- 38:07understanding and so on sort
- 38:09of a behavioral approach?
- 38:11I would suggest to the way
- 38:14we think through ethics.
- 38:16This is different than what I
- 38:18would describe as this alternative,
- 38:20more character based approach,
- 38:22and in fact we see this in that publication.
- 38:25Global health ethics for students by
- 38:27Pinto and Upshur in within the early
- 38:29stages of guidelines for short term
- 38:32global health training and some of
- 38:34us have started to question this as
- 38:36well in recent writings of our own.
- 38:39You can see that the principles
- 38:41here or I should say the concepts
- 38:44here are different introspection.
- 38:46Humility in solidarity and so the
- 38:48questions that are asked are also different.
- 38:51Here the question is why am I engaging
- 38:54in this global health research or
- 38:57service program versus what am I going to do?
- 39:00A why question versus a what
- 39:03question or issue of humility?
- 39:05What are my own personal and
- 39:07professional limitations?
- 39:08And am I exceeding them?
- 39:11In this particular context.
- 39:13Or issues of solidarity?
- 39:15How do my actions demonstrate unity
- 39:17independent of their tangible impact?
- 39:19Now I said that some of us have
- 39:21started to explore what would
- 39:23it look like to integrate a more
- 39:26character based approach to the
- 39:28way we tend to think about ethics,
- 39:31particularly those of us trained in a
- 39:33principle based approach to bioethics.
- 39:36In fact,
- 39:36we've wondered if these two
- 39:38approaches may be stronger together.
- 39:40Do we may?
- 39:41We may need concepts of introspection,
- 39:44humility and so on in order to
- 39:46understand how to apply these basic
- 39:49bioethics principles in unfamiliar places.
- 39:51So in other words,
- 39:53the below concepts may be foundational
- 39:56to how we interpret the above
- 39:58principles and let me illustrate.
- 40:00This with an example.
- 40:02I mentioned that performing outside the
- 40:05scope of training is one of the big
- 40:07issues that trainees of all types
- 40:10report having experienced abroad,
- 40:12and I think this example of being
- 40:14asked to do things outside one scope
- 40:17illustrates nicely how important humility,
- 40:19introspection and so on
- 40:21are to ethical analysis,
- 40:23particularly when if you look
- 40:24at those ethics guidelines,
- 40:26they will say something like this.
- 40:28It's usually not best to exceed your scope.
- 40:33You might wonder exactly how
- 40:35helpful is that as guidance,
- 40:36but when a principle says what
- 40:38are the risks and benefits of
- 40:41me performing outside my scope?
- 40:43Was the individual aware or informed
- 40:45of my skills when I did that?
- 40:48Or am I applying my decision the
- 40:50same in all circumstances when
- 40:51the principals say that this
- 40:53character break based approach says
- 40:55something different and emphasizes?
- 40:57Am I being humble in assessing my own skills?
- 41:01Or the power imbalance is minimized as
- 41:03a matter of solidarity thinking of us,
- 41:06not them.
- 41:07Nor am I the right person to be making
- 41:10this decision in the 1st place.
- 41:12My introspectively thinking about
- 41:14why is it I'm in the situation I am,
- 41:16and why do I think I should be making
- 41:19a decision about whether to exceed
- 41:21my scope of practice abroad or not?
- 41:23So again, I think these,
- 41:25but these other concepts.
- 41:27Introspection,
- 41:27humility and so on may be fundamental
- 41:30to the way we should interpret some of
- 41:34those classic bioethics principles.
- 41:36They shall not highlight this problem.
- 41:39This challenge of performing outside
- 41:41the scope of training abroad I was
- 41:44part of a group that did a study of
- 41:46more than 200 global health individuals.
- 41:49Remember that asterisk?
- 41:50I said about minimal numbers of
- 41:52trainees represented in the literature.
- 41:54Here's a case where one study
- 41:56nearly doubled that,
- 41:58but it's in this study more than
- 42:00200 global health individuals who
- 42:02were diverse in terms of training.
- 42:04They were students, residents,
- 42:06postdocs, and so on.
- 42:08They recruited by Snowball nearly half.
- 42:11Reported being asked to do something
- 42:13outside their scope of practice
- 42:16and 2/3 actually did it.
- 42:18What reasons were offered as to why?
- 42:21Whether it could be a mismatch
- 42:23with host expectations,
- 42:24suboptimal supervision,
- 42:25inadequate preparation was noted.
- 42:27An absence of alternative options,
- 42:29and sometimes the perception that
- 42:31a situation was truly an emergency
- 42:34and there was no alternative but
- 42:37to exceed the scope of practice.
- 42:40Now really interesting Lee trainees
- 42:42in this sample were twice as likely
- 42:45to report performing outside their
- 42:48scope compared to licensed practitioners.
- 42:51I think we have to interpret this cautiously,
- 42:54right?
- 42:54It could be that the issue is
- 42:57licensed practitioners perceive
- 42:59their scope to be bigger.
- 43:01And so less things are going
- 43:02to fall outside it,
- 43:03but it did seem like trainees
- 43:05could be at least more susceptible
- 43:07to this sort of activity.
- 43:09This is a phenomenon that was observed
- 43:11in the study for both clinical and
- 43:15nonclinical individuals indecisions alike.
- 43:17So for example,
- 43:18a public health person or an
- 43:20education person could perceive
- 43:23themselves to be making decisions.
- 43:25They were outside their scope.
- 43:27Maybe it's not a clinical situation,
- 43:28but it's a decision that was
- 43:30beyond the scope of practice.
- 43:32And then, like I hinted at before,
- 43:35some of the qualitative findings from
- 43:38our open ended questions suggested
- 43:40the potential for lasting distress.
- 43:42Lasting moral distress after
- 43:44individuals have performed
- 43:46outside their scope of practice.
- 43:52So I talked a little bit about the
- 43:55challenge of defining success.
- 43:57Would outcomes matter?
- 43:58How might we measure them?
- 43:59How are we thinking about the ethics?
- 44:02I want to talk about challenge #2,
- 44:05which is who decides and this is I
- 44:07think it related ethics question.
- 44:09Who decides between these
- 44:11competing conceptions of ethics
- 44:12or of what matters most when it
- 44:15comes to outcomes and evaluation?
- 44:17Here the literature,
- 44:18but perhaps not all programs.
- 44:21That's true too infrequently
- 44:22asked what local priorities are,
- 44:24but if we look closely at some
- 44:26of the examples that are in the
- 44:29literature major just a few,
- 44:30I think there are some
- 44:33interesting findings to consider.
- 44:34So again, here the evidence is sparse,
- 44:37but I think there's a signal
- 44:39in the literature that how.
- 44:41Is just as important as what?
- 44:43So in a study we did in
- 44:45the Dominican Republic,
- 44:47we would ask local community
- 44:48members what do you like most
- 44:50about this particular short term,
- 44:52global health activity and what
- 44:54was interesting is that the first
- 44:56responses from individuals was not
- 44:58always about the tangible benefits.
- 45:00If you look at these quotes,
- 45:02I think you can see that the third quote,
- 45:06because you are friends,
- 45:07you are treating me all this time.
- 45:10I'm with you so appealing not.
- 45:12To the tangible benefits of the program,
- 45:15not to the medications,
- 45:17not to the education,
- 45:19not to the services,
- 45:20but instead to how those services and
- 45:23how those activities aren't delivered.
- 45:26Similarly, in a survey.
- 45:28Asking host communities what
- 45:31competency is most important?
- 45:33For trainees that come from a
- 45:35high income country to a low and
- 45:38middle income country to visit you,
- 45:40what competency matters most?
- 45:42Look at the ones that come
- 45:44to the top of the list.
- 45:46Humility and being respectful
- 45:47far down the list is the ability
- 45:49in this case to conduct or
- 45:51assist in research programs.
- 45:53So I think if we look here we do
- 45:56see less emphasis on the tangibles,
- 45:58but I always say we have to
- 46:01interpret this cautiously.
- 46:02We had to be careful because.
- 46:04Of power imbalances of structural
- 46:06imbalances that can affect the
- 46:09way people answer questions
- 46:11that we shouldn't move too far.
- 46:13From a focus on real tangible
- 46:15outcomes and equity focused outcomes,
- 46:18even if I think these findings are important.
- 46:24And there's a third challenge.
- 46:26This is really a methodological
- 46:27challenge in my mind, and that's the
- 46:30question of whom should we evaluate?
- 46:32A recognized need, or the obligation
- 46:34to evaluate program outcomes,
- 46:36which is now widely recognized
- 46:38is really complicated.
- 46:39In methodological terms by some of
- 46:41these issues we discussed earlier.
- 46:43Remember early in the presentation
- 46:45I said there are these challenges
- 46:47around what counts as short-term.
- 46:49What counts as global?
- 46:50What counts is health.
- 46:52So there's a lack of consensus
- 46:54around these key definitions,
- 46:56and this results in the absence of a
- 46:58clearly defined population of study.
- 47:01You need to study.
- 47:02NGOs, charities, academic centers and so on.
- 47:05How do we draw boundaries around a
- 47:09study population in order us for
- 47:12us to do a rigorous evaluation?
- 47:14It's also complicated,
- 47:16oftentimes by lack of funding,
- 47:18and as I'll describe in a moment,
- 47:20the pressure to sometimes
- 47:22localize the global.
- 47:24So it's not surprising that many
- 47:26evaluations have tended to be limited
- 47:29to some of these single offices.
- 47:31Single site single programs, and so on.
- 47:33It's not surprising to me that we are
- 47:36where we are when it comes to evaluation.
- 47:39Because of these methodological challenges
- 47:42in finding a population of study.
- 47:45What do I think about
- 47:47measuring effectiveness?
- 47:48These are just some thoughts for discussion,
- 47:50maybe something we can
- 47:52talk about more in the Q&A.
- 47:54I think whatever approach to
- 47:56measurement of effectiveness we choose,
- 47:57it should be developmental,
- 47:59meaning that no one size fits all.
- 48:02And here it's important to remember
- 48:05that if we emphasize only successful.
- 48:08Idealized long-term partnerships.
- 48:09This will inevitably leave
- 48:11some places and people out,
- 48:13and that is itself an issue of justice,
- 48:17right?
- 48:17If we demand sustainability from the
- 48:20outset long-term from the outset,
- 48:22and so on,
- 48:23there will be places and people that will
- 48:27be left out of this particular activity.
- 48:30I think our approach has to be collaborative,
- 48:33or more importantly,
- 48:34decided within by local communities.
- 48:36I think it needs to be progressive
- 48:38where we need to emphasize specific
- 48:40timelines and benchmarks and this is
- 48:42a bit of a nod to the human rights
- 48:45contexts and where human rights,
- 48:47concepts of timelines and benchmarks
- 48:49really could inform the way we evaluate.
- 48:51Then Lastly,
- 48:52evaluation needs to be non exploitative.
- 48:54We have to avoid benefiting
- 48:56at others expense.
- 48:57I want to double click on this concept for
- 49:01just a moment in a bit of an interlude.
- 49:06Well sometimes see in the
- 49:08literature this idea.
- 49:10The description that have time
- 49:12abroad can improve knowledge,
- 49:14skills and attitudes of
- 49:16trainees as important outcomes,
- 49:18even leading them to careers
- 49:21in serving underserved and
- 49:23marginalized populations at home.
- 49:25And we might all agree that
- 49:27similar ethics concepts apply,
- 49:28but I think this raises far more questions.
- 49:31Then it does justify short-term
- 49:33global health questions like these.
- 49:35Why should we go abroad?
- 49:38To learn these lessons lessons.
- 49:40Can or should we learn them
- 49:42in our own communities?
- 49:43Or, more provocatively,
- 49:44is this really a subtle or even
- 49:47bizarre form of exploitation of
- 49:50uniquely global communities where
- 49:53exploitation is this idea of making
- 49:55use of a situation to gain unfair
- 49:57advantage for oneself, and I I, really?
- 50:00You describe it as somewhat bizarre, right?
- 50:04The idea being that even if underserved
- 50:07communities are benefiting here,
- 50:09locali from the types of training
- 50:12we do globally is that still.
- 50:15A subtler, bizarre form of exploitation
- 50:18of a uniquely global community.
- 50:24So I mentioned before this idea of
- 50:27rethinking principles or adding even
- 50:29more character based approaches of
- 50:31introspection and humility to our more
- 50:34fundamental bioethics principles, and here.
- 50:36But here I want to ask another
- 50:39question that is, is thinking beyond
- 50:42these principles radical enough?
- 50:44Remember, I showed this graphic
- 50:46and I said what's the next step?
- 50:49In moral progress, if we've gone
- 50:52from altruism to charity to justice,
- 50:55what exactly is next?
- 50:56And here I want to explore the idea
- 50:59of decolonizing global health,
- 51:01or decolonization,
- 51:02as a possible next step with somewhat
- 51:06radical implications for the way we
- 51:09think about global health ethics.
- 51:11So recently there has been a
- 51:13building movement under this rubric
- 51:15of decolonizing global health,
- 51:17and I think we have to ask what would
- 51:19this mean for short-term global health.
- 51:22Really exciting, energized movement,
- 51:24often of students?
- 51:25If you look at this snapshot from Twitter,
- 51:28look at the comment underneath
- 51:30the Twitter handle.
- 51:31It says we're bored of the Gates
- 51:34Foundation telling us what to do with it.
- 51:37Interesting,
- 51:37cheeky response that only students
- 51:39probably can get away with.
- 51:41But it could be an important
- 51:43concept for us to explore in the
- 51:46hallmarks of decolonization.
- 51:47If we go into the decolonization literature,
- 51:50had to do with things
- 51:52like self determination,
- 51:53number one in a political sense.
- 51:56And then #2 eliminating other structures,
- 51:58financial structures and so on
- 52:00that contribute to NEO colonialism.
- 52:03That is,
- 52:04colonialism that exists even when an entity,
- 52:07or when a state is politically independent.
- 52:11And I think we should ask what would
- 52:14decolonizing global health mean
- 52:16for ethics concepts that we see in
- 52:18some of these ethics guidelines?
- 52:21Terms like mutual benefit,
- 52:23sustainability and dare we say,
- 52:25even those fundamental Western
- 52:26bioethics principles?
- 52:27What would it mean to apply
- 52:30decolonization to some of these concepts?
- 52:34We should also remember what
- 52:36decolonization is not.
- 52:38Decolonizing short-term global
- 52:39health does have rhetorical appeal,
- 52:41but we must be clear about what it
- 52:44means in the rich literature around
- 52:47decolonization and neocolonialism.
- 52:49So decolonizing is not, for example,
- 52:52merely merely political independence.
- 52:54As I said,
- 52:55neocolonialism teaches us that
- 52:57financial and other institutional
- 53:00structures can matter just as
- 53:02much as far as control and power.
- 53:05It's also not about disengagement.
- 53:06It's not leaving a place where
- 53:08we created a mess.
- 53:10We have to still allow for the right kind
- 53:13of partnerships and engagement to exist.
- 53:16And of course,
- 53:17it's not what some described as
- 53:19fake decolonizing, that is,
- 53:21restoring ones image without addressing
- 53:24seriously the structural power imbalances.
- 53:26Again, that we've often helped create.
- 53:30So indeed,
- 53:30if we take this concept seriously,
- 53:33it might mean rethinking what
- 53:35our traditional principles mean,
- 53:36or rethinking them altogether.
- 53:38Here,
- 53:38I'm showing you again,
- 53:40those five consensus principles
- 53:42from the Lasker Review around
- 53:44preparation needs and so on.
- 53:45In the middle is a lens of
- 53:48decolonizing as a new ethics
- 53:50lens that we would apply to these
- 53:53principles and then we have to ask,
- 53:56does it reshape them?
- 53:58This preparation mean educating and analyzing
- 54:01cases with attention to colonialism.
- 54:04We have to make sure we're eliminating
- 54:07power and structural imbalances.
- 54:09Equalized partnerships.
- 54:09We have to think about sustainability.
- 54:12Important though,
- 54:13it is that being separate from
- 54:15dependence or independence.
- 54:17What does it mean to promote
- 54:19local legal standards,
- 54:20not merely replicate northern ones?
- 54:23How should evaluation be led
- 54:25and driven by local media?
- 54:26So here really I'm asking this as a question.
- 54:29Again, something we might discuss in the Q&A.
- 54:32What would it look like?
- 54:34To take decolonization seriously.
- 54:35And they use it as a lens to
- 54:39rethink some of our principles.
- 54:41Important though they are accepted,
- 54:43though they are at the present time.
- 54:47This is just about where I'm going to stop
- 54:50and again look forward to some discussion.
- 54:52I'll offer three tentative conclusions.
- 54:56While much work remains,
- 54:58I think it's reasonable to suggest.
- 55:00So we made progress in the policy and
- 55:02practice of short-term global health
- 55:04programs over the past 20 years.
- 55:06Progress that sees this is through
- 55:09the ethics lens of justice.
- 55:11I think Secondly,
- 55:12there's a real need to evaluate
- 55:14the effectiveness of ethics
- 55:16training with a critical eye toward
- 55:18whether we have the ethics right.
- 55:20And that's again where concepts
- 55:22of decolonization might come in.
- 55:24And arguably,
- 55:25perhaps the eventual goal is to
- 55:27no longer need short-term global
- 55:29health activities,
- 55:30at least not as they are now conceived.
- 55:35In two additional thoughts.
- 55:36Medical schools do have a critical
- 55:39role to play as leaders and they
- 55:42have to recognize the trickle
- 55:43down effect of their own policy.
- 55:46So one thing that just ever colleague
- 55:48might come to know over the years
- 55:50is emphasized as a concern about
- 55:52unintentionally encouraging premed
- 55:54undergrads to do things that make
- 55:56their applications stand out globally.
- 55:59Do we inadvertently reward things
- 56:02like performing outside the scope of
- 56:05training only reward applicants who tell us?
- 56:08Somewhat grandiose stories of things
- 56:10they've done abroad that arguably they
- 56:13would never be allowed to do at home.
- 56:15Another major concern,
- 56:16but I haven't talked about is the
- 56:18advent of so called predatory
- 56:20global health opportunities within
- 56:22organizations that have variable
- 56:24financial and charitable efficiencies.
- 56:26So that concern here being that there
- 56:29are actually some money makers.
- 56:31Out there in short term global
- 56:33health that verge on being predatory
- 56:35towards students to again give
- 56:37them these opportunities that may
- 56:39make their application stand out.
- 56:41And what's our responsibility in the
- 56:44medical school environment to correct that?
- 56:46Let's try to close.
- 56:48These are just some ethics
- 56:49education resources.
- 56:51If anyone wants to learn more about ethics,
- 56:54education, and short-term global health,
- 56:55I sure appreciate your time.
- 56:57And I hope that we have some
- 57:00time here for discussion,
- 57:01thanks.
- 57:13Set of issues around short-term
- 57:16education and global health.
- 57:19We certainly want to entertain
- 57:21questions we have at least 1/2
- 57:24an hour to to provide questions.
- 57:27If you will submit your questions to the Q&A,
- 57:31type them out and we will.
- 57:35And we will. And I can.
- 57:39I will read them.
- 57:40I wanted to take the opportunity to
- 57:41share their to have the first question
- 57:43every couple questions already, but.
- 57:46I'm I'm interested that you you talked
- 57:50about the possibility that we might
- 57:53be dealing with forms of exploitation.
- 57:56And if you phrase that I took it
- 57:59that you phrased that as a question,
- 58:02so I want to ask you what can you
- 58:04unpack that a little further and let
- 58:07me further ask is it almost isn't
- 58:10it almost inevitable that there's
- 58:12going to be some exploitation
- 58:14in arrangements like this,
- 58:15where there is all these various
- 58:18asymmetry's that you've pointed out?
- 58:21Well, see you know, cheer ladder.
- 58:24Question about the inevitability of it.
- 58:27Um? They could seem that way. You know,
- 58:32there are certainly views out there.
- 58:35That would suggest, for example,
- 58:37that if we create an ethics calculus.
- 58:40Of weighing the good and
- 58:42the bad of these activities,
- 58:44that things like magical educational
- 58:47benefits to our trainees.
- 58:49Don't count. Or they can't count
- 58:53because that's exploitation.
- 58:54They're getting educational
- 58:56benefit at someone elses expense.
- 59:00That's one I think extreme view,
- 59:01and I'm not sure I would actually go
- 59:04that far to say that they don't count.
- 59:06But I think we have to be very
- 59:10careful in how we evaluate.
- 59:13Those risks and benefits.
- 59:17To unpack exploitation?
- 59:18You know the example I gave is this idea
- 59:24that justifying short-term global health.
- 59:27On the basis of benefit to underserved
- 59:31communities locally is could be seen
- 59:34as a subtle form of exploitation.
- 59:37Then I don't know what people are.
- 59:41Not everyone may agree with that.
- 59:44But it it certainly starts to seem like it.
- 59:48Um, I think we all hope that,
- 59:51in an ideal world,
- 59:52and maybe it's years in the future
- 59:55that there aren't power imbalances and
- 59:58things don't come at other peoples.
- 01:00:00Fences and so on. But it does raise.
- 01:00:04I think this other question because
- 01:00:06if we think about exploitation,
- 01:00:09we think about benefiting at others expense.
- 01:00:13That requires us to really know
- 01:00:16what the others expense is.
- 01:00:18Unfortunately.
- 01:00:19Those of us who have engaged in
- 01:00:22these kinds of activities are
- 01:00:25often in the least best position.
- 01:00:27To understand what those expenses might be.
- 01:00:31So when we talk about benefits
- 01:00:33and burdens really do,
- 01:00:35short-term activities will often talk,
- 01:00:37draw analogies from full cost accounting.
- 01:00:40Right in the nature of we have to really
- 01:00:43understand what all those potential
- 01:00:45burdens and expenses might be to even know.
- 01:00:49Whether or not.
- 01:00:51There are keruing.
- 01:00:53And maybe that's the first step.
- 01:00:56You know, I I,
- 01:00:57I can say personally,
- 01:00:58that when I went to Honduras
- 01:01:00you know now 20 years ago.
- 01:01:03I probably didn't even see.
- 01:01:06The burden of the airport transfers.
- 01:01:10And so on,
- 01:01:11going back and forth to the site I was
- 01:01:14in the least best position to see that.
- 01:01:16And I think until we can understand
- 01:01:18what those expenses and burns might be,
- 01:01:20it's hard to even have a
- 01:01:21conversation about exploitation.
- 01:01:22I don't know if that answers the question,
- 01:01:24but those are just some thoughts on it.
- 01:01:27That's what we wanted.
- 01:01:30Now let me we we have other questions
- 01:01:34coming into only from one from one of my
- 01:01:37colleagues from the Public Health school.
- 01:01:40Thank you for a wonderful talk.
- 01:01:43How does the presence or absence
- 01:01:45of an established long-term
- 01:01:47partnership between the Hi C&LMIC
- 01:01:49institutions impact the ethics of
- 01:01:52short-term global health work?
- 01:01:54And if you will?
- 01:01:57Unpaid tell us the meaning
- 01:01:59of Hi C&LMIC for everyone.
- 01:02:02Oh sorry,
- 01:02:02so high income country versus lower middle
- 01:02:07income country tends to rely on World
- 01:02:10Bank definitions about Ian and so on.
- 01:02:14The question about long,
- 01:02:16long term partnerships.
- 01:02:18You know it does change.
- 01:02:20I think the way we we think about the ethics.
- 01:02:23Most people will say that these
- 01:02:25longer term partnerships are ideal.
- 01:02:27We all say, let me let me add this,
- 01:02:30by the way, when I said that
- 01:02:31our approach to evaluating the
- 01:02:33ethics needs to be developmental.
- 01:02:35I'll also be upfront that this
- 01:02:36really relies in some respects on
- 01:02:39my original experience in Honduras.
- 01:02:43There if you, if I looked only
- 01:02:45at my experience 20 years ago,
- 01:02:48that was not a long term partnership.
- 01:02:51Lot of the activities from
- 01:02:53the outside probably could be
- 01:02:55looked at as unsustainable.
- 01:02:57But that was the start.
- 01:03:00And overtime because the organizers
- 01:03:02were committed to longer term
- 01:03:03sustainable partnerships,
- 01:03:05it's now grown and developed in
- 01:03:08such a way that it's entirely run.
- 01:03:12In Honduras by people in Honduras,
- 01:03:14in short term groups come in
- 01:03:16from time to time as part of
- 01:03:19what we would describe as more
- 01:03:21mutually beneficial exchange.
- 01:03:23For a program that really is lead.
- 01:03:26By people in Honduras.
- 01:03:28That looks ethically very
- 01:03:30different than something where
- 01:03:32a group comes in for two weeks.
- 01:03:36Does a lot of service activities or
- 01:03:39clinical care activities and leaves
- 01:03:41and there's nothing else there.
- 01:03:43So in a way,
- 01:03:44I would we want it to be that there
- 01:03:48is a long term partnership and
- 01:03:51short-term activities almost become an
- 01:03:54increasingly small or different part.
- 01:03:57Of the whole picture.
- 01:04:00In fact, in that case,
- 01:04:02go back to the first question.
- 01:04:04In that case,
- 01:04:05it may actually be more justifiable that
- 01:04:08the main benefit there is educational.
- 01:04:12Because the way that program looks
- 01:04:14as a whole lot less about quote
- 01:04:17delivering benefits to the community
- 01:04:19abroad or benefiting at their expense.
- 01:04:21So I think it's a great question.
- 01:04:24Long term sustainable
- 01:04:25partnerships are often idealized.
- 01:04:27We shouldn't expect them in all cases.
- 01:04:29We maybe expect that they
- 01:04:31grow to that point overtime.
- 01:04:36Alright, thank you. Another question.
- 01:04:40How is it possible to quote
- 01:04:43demonstrate solidarity through
- 01:04:44global health activities without
- 01:04:46having a measurable impact?
- 01:04:47Don't outcomes matter more than
- 01:04:49both character and actions?
- 01:04:51Isn't the point of global health
- 01:04:54activities improving the health of the
- 01:04:56communities where they are carried out?
- 01:04:59If these activities do not help,
- 01:05:01what is the point?
- 01:05:03Yeah, good. This is a question from someone
- 01:05:07who who is a hardcore outcomes person.
- 01:05:10Um? Maybe? I agree.
- 01:05:14Um, although I probably think
- 01:05:16that there's still room for both,
- 01:05:18and if I put on my philosophy hat and came
- 01:05:21up with a philosophy thought experiment.
- 01:05:24I would say that we could certainly imagine.
- 01:05:27A top down program.
- 01:05:30That's implemented from above.
- 01:05:33And could be very efficient and
- 01:05:35heavy handed at achieving an outcome.
- 01:05:37But it's not been done through a process
- 01:05:40of decision making that's engaged or
- 01:05:42involved with the local community
- 01:05:44where that community is helped define
- 01:05:47the needs and shapes them overtime and
- 01:05:49really kind of leaves it on their own.
- 01:05:53So I still think that some
- 01:05:56of these process oriented.
- 01:05:57Outcomes for lack of a better word
- 01:05:59can really matter, and in fact,
- 01:06:01if we thought about it,
- 01:06:03we probably could come up with
- 01:06:05ways to measure.
- 01:06:06Sentiments around solidarity.
- 01:06:09Sentiments around respect.
- 01:06:12So again, that's that's that's an.
- 01:06:14I will say that is something we've heard.
- 01:06:16We've done, you know,
- 01:06:18research with local communities.
- 01:06:19They seem also to care about this.
- 01:06:21Now again,
- 01:06:22we don't know.
- 01:06:23I wouldn't go too far in that
- 01:06:26direction either.
- 01:06:26But I wouldn't go so far as to say that
- 01:06:29only these more process or decision
- 01:06:32process oriented metrics matter.
- 01:06:34We still want to have the outcomes in mind,
- 01:06:37but I think.
- 01:06:39If we listen to people from abroad.
- 01:06:43And listen to the people that
- 01:06:45we've talked to.
- 01:06:46At least they seem to suggest that
- 01:06:49some of these more character based
- 01:06:51treatment based process based.
- 01:06:53Concepts matter just as much to them,
- 01:06:55and I guess for me I just take
- 01:06:58that seriously.
- 01:07:01Before I want to follow up a little bit.
- 01:07:05By asking I, I think it's admirable
- 01:07:08that that you and your group have
- 01:07:12have actually listened to the
- 01:07:15recipients of some of these programs,
- 01:07:18and it strikes me that that
- 01:07:21would should be essential.
- 01:07:23How regularly does that happen
- 01:07:25that people actually seek
- 01:07:27feedback from the communities that
- 01:07:30they have been engaged with?
- 01:07:33Yeah, I think it's a great question.
- 01:07:35It would be hard to make a statement of
- 01:07:38percentages partly going back to this.
- 01:07:41Issue that it's such a disk unregulated
- 01:07:44space of charities and NGOs that it's hard
- 01:07:47to know exactly what's happening where.
- 01:07:49I think that there is increasing
- 01:07:53recognition of the need to do this.
- 01:07:56So I think it's happening more often.
- 01:07:59This is a place where I think academic
- 01:08:02institutions can probably lead.
- 01:08:03Right, because academic institutions
- 01:08:05have lead in creating some
- 01:08:06of these guidance documents,
- 01:08:08evaluation and understanding the local
- 01:08:10community are clearly parts of these
- 01:08:12documents and this is a case where academic
- 01:08:15programs really can take the lead.
- 01:08:17So it is happening.
- 01:08:18I think it's happening more
- 01:08:20and needs to happen even more.
- 01:08:25Thank you. Here's another question.
- 01:08:29I recently had a large grant frozen
- 01:08:31by Yale because they argue that
- 01:08:33running a medical training program in
- 01:08:35East Africa is currently too risky,
- 01:08:37quote due to covid. At the same time,
- 01:08:41we're allowing medical training
- 01:08:42programs in the US to continue.
- 01:08:44I personally think this is
- 01:08:46neither fair nor reasonable.
- 01:08:47Would be interested to hear your thoughts.
- 01:08:52Right now I don't know the.
- 01:08:56Yell environment that well but.
- 01:08:59Yeah, if we abstract from that to
- 01:09:01the general question, I would say.
- 01:09:06It's and it is an example of this
- 01:09:08question of standards, isn't it?
- 01:09:11You know that the way we think about
- 01:09:14risk and the way institutions often
- 01:09:17think about risk as well is not
- 01:09:20purely based on some objective number.
- 01:09:23Right that we somehow think that risk is
- 01:09:26different in one setting versus another,
- 01:09:28and we're more tolerant of risk in
- 01:09:30this setting versus another setting,
- 01:09:32so I don't think I can come out
- 01:09:35whether it's precisely fair or not,
- 01:09:37other than to say that I can at
- 01:09:41least understand that in my view.
- 01:09:44I don't see risk of a purely
- 01:09:46objective matter. Yeah.
- 01:09:49Certainly I see that as a clinician
- 01:09:52where patients view risk differently.
- 01:09:54Institutions view risk differently.
- 01:09:58That said, it's a tough.
- 01:09:59That is a tough situation.
- 01:10:02Thank you.
- 01:10:05Here's another, rather briefer question.
- 01:10:07Do you have an example of a medical
- 01:10:11program that comes the closest
- 01:10:13to being anti colonial? Who?
- 01:10:21And you can. You can take that
- 01:10:23question in any direction you like.
- 01:10:26I I examples you like
- 01:10:28you know that.
- 01:10:30I don't know that a perfect example.
- 01:10:34Comes to mind. But that's partly a
- 01:10:38reflection of my own limitations in.
- 01:10:43Not being sure that we really
- 01:10:46know what anti colonial means.
- 01:10:49More its implications for ethics.
- 01:10:53So I think partly my inability or
- 01:10:56my reluctance to highlight any one
- 01:10:58program reflects that own uncertainty.
- 01:11:01In my thinking about what decolonizing.
- 01:11:05Activities really can or should
- 01:11:06mean you as part is preparing
- 01:11:08this and then thinking about
- 01:11:10decolonizing you know there is a
- 01:11:12rich literature around decolonization.
- 01:11:14From the 50s, sixties,
- 01:11:1670s like and it's a lot to get into
- 01:11:19and I'm excited to learn more about it.
- 01:11:22But probably it's that feeling
- 01:11:24like I only have that tip of the
- 01:11:26iceberg that prevents me from
- 01:11:28saying more about that question.
- 01:11:31Thank you. As it turns out,
- 01:11:35Tracy Raven is in attendance and she has.
- 01:11:38She has commented here.
- 01:11:39Thanks so much for a fantastic talk Matt,
- 01:11:42I really appreciate the way that
- 01:11:44you laid out the issues with
- 01:11:46the evidence based around his
- 01:11:48predeparture ethics training.
- 01:11:50I completely agree with your
- 01:11:51schematic describing the evolution
- 01:11:53from altruism to charity etc.
- 01:11:55And I also agree that the decolonization
- 01:11:58movement is the next step.
- 01:12:00Harriet my younger mckeary
- 01:12:02Michelle Berry Ann.
- 01:12:03I just published a piece in academic
- 01:12:06medicine last month arguing that
- 01:12:09the halt in travel due to COVID-19
- 01:12:11his coincided well with the rise of
- 01:12:15this new consciousness and gives a
- 01:12:18great opportunity for educational
- 01:12:19programs to reevaluate the way that
- 01:12:22they interact with global partners.
- 01:12:24Have you seen examples of institutions
- 01:12:27grappling with these issues
- 01:12:29over the past year?
- 01:12:32I, I think it's the truth as well.
- 01:12:34Thanks for the comments to
- 01:12:36Tracy and Glad I sorta see you.
- 01:12:39Glad you saw me like that.
- 01:12:40I can see you but.
- 01:12:44I think institutions are grappling with this,
- 01:12:46and I'll say this this slide in the
- 01:12:49comments about what decolonizing is not.
- 01:12:52I think it's also really important.
- 01:12:55I I always have fears that when
- 01:13:01concepts become rhetorically appealing.
- 01:13:05We fail. The scrutinize what they mean,
- 01:13:09or we pick and choose the
- 01:13:12parts of it that we like.
- 01:13:15And so to give a historical example of
- 01:13:18that in the decolonization literature,
- 01:13:21there was a very clear concern
- 01:13:24where when decolonizing meant.
- 01:13:26Giving political independence.
- 01:13:28The former colonial states.
- 01:13:31What actually happened?
- 01:13:33Was it justified?
- 01:13:35Colonial powers leaving that state.
- 01:13:39While continuing to
- 01:13:40extract natural resources,
- 01:13:42economic resources,
- 01:13:43and financial gain now from a former
- 01:13:47colony over which or for which they
- 01:13:51had zero responsibility at all.
- 01:13:54And that was picking and choosing
- 01:13:56a particular we liked.
- 01:13:58The part of decolonization that takes
- 01:14:00us politically out of the state,
- 01:14:02so long as the financial structures and
- 01:14:05other parts of the global institutional
- 01:14:07context allow us to continue to benefit.
- 01:14:10So I would say that's probably my.
- 01:14:14Caution about.
- 01:14:15Decolonizing is for us not to
- 01:14:18pick and choose just the parts.
- 01:14:21That we like that if we're really
- 01:14:23going to take decolonizing seriously,
- 01:14:26I think it it means scrutinizing
- 01:14:29every last part.
- 01:14:31Of our activities and I maybe didn't say
- 01:14:33it clearly enough in the presentation,
- 01:14:36but that also includes the ethics principles.
- 01:14:40That in many ways we have exported
- 01:14:42Western bioethics principles
- 01:14:44into places where I'm not quite
- 01:14:46sure that was the right,
- 01:14:47or is the right thing to do it maybe?
- 01:14:52But it may not be.
- 01:14:53And so I do think institutions are
- 01:14:55starting to grapple with this.
- 01:14:56We just have to be careful with
- 01:14:58the way we apply the concept.
- 01:15:00It's a great question.
- 01:15:03Thank you.
- 01:15:06Now the question so many of
- 01:15:08your points or comment so many
- 01:15:10of your points resonate with my
- 01:15:12experience working on a micro edit.
- 01:15:14Microcredit project in Kenya.
- 01:15:15In 2000. I return to the US with
- 01:15:19many complicated feelings about
- 01:15:21International Development. Hang on.
- 01:15:28Such as you describe about
- 01:15:30the medical missions.
- 01:15:31You see this research applying
- 01:15:33in the same way to broader
- 01:15:35International Development projects
- 01:15:37there. That's a great question.
- 01:15:39There are really interesting areas
- 01:15:41of overlap. Sometimes when I talk
- 01:15:44to students about short-term global
- 01:15:46health or to audiences that are less.
- 01:15:49Maybe less engaged with short term
- 01:15:51global health then say it clinical.
- 01:15:54Audience. I will say actually
- 01:15:56the way we think about short-term
- 01:15:59global health ethics is a microcosm.
- 01:16:03Could be seen as a microcosm for
- 01:16:05global health ethics more broadly.
- 01:16:07And so these concepts are just examples.
- 01:16:10This is 1 setting where we have
- 01:16:12to wrestle with it,
- 01:16:14but in fact it has intersections and
- 01:16:17connections to humanitarian ethics.
- 01:16:19Developmental, a ethics,
- 01:16:21and oftentimes unfortunately these
- 01:16:23groups don't talk to each other.
- 01:16:25It's some extent it could be a criticism,
- 01:16:29in fact of the short term of that history,
- 01:16:33I told you of short term global health
- 01:16:36and development of ethics guidelines.
- 01:16:38I'm sure there are developmental
- 01:16:40there aid workers and humanitarian
- 01:16:43organizations that say.
- 01:16:45Why did it take short-term global health
- 01:16:47ethics this long to come to these
- 01:16:49principles that we've been thinking
- 01:16:51about in the aid context for decades?
- 01:16:56As an example, as a concrete example of that,
- 01:16:58one of the best. Crazy fast,
- 01:17:01but one of the frameworks that's out there.
- 01:17:05To help understand exceeding scope of
- 01:17:08practice and a decision framework for
- 01:17:10with whether or how it can be justified
- 01:17:13is actually found from Matthew Hunt,
- 01:17:16Lisa Schwartz and colleagues
- 01:17:18in the humanitarian aid world.
- 01:17:21Where in humanitarian disasters this
- 01:17:24exact situation often comes up.
- 01:17:26And so there are ways in which there
- 01:17:29should be connection between the
- 01:17:31short term global health context
- 01:17:33and these other domains,
- 01:17:35including I would say locally.
- 01:17:38Right, it is not uncommon for areas in
- 01:17:41our own communities for us to experience
- 01:17:44some of these same kinds of issues.
- 01:17:50Alright, great.
- 01:17:55Another question. Which should
- 01:17:58give you some room to two.
- 01:18:03Two to move. What are your thoughts on the
- 01:18:06ethics of remote based global health work?
- 01:18:11So that that's an interesting question too.
- 01:18:15Yeah, the first thought that comes to mind,
- 01:18:19of course, is that many remote technologies,
- 01:18:23AI mobile technologies and so
- 01:18:26on have have been justified.
- 01:18:28Buy the potential to leapfrog
- 01:18:32things like the digital divide.
- 01:18:35Or leapfrog some of the challenges that
- 01:18:37we have in delivering global health.
- 01:18:41Education, health, education and so on.
- 01:18:44But the question here is a little bit more.
- 01:18:48I think service directed. Anne.
- 01:18:52It's probably familiar in my
- 01:18:54mind is probably a case by case.
- 01:18:57Sort of. Analysis For that.
- 01:19:01Certainly some of the same principles
- 01:19:03about making sure that the remote
- 01:19:06technology meets a community to find
- 01:19:09need are still going to apply right?
- 01:19:12One of the challenges that are
- 01:19:14one of the ways that challenges
- 01:19:17in global health can be framed is
- 01:19:20the idea that we're providing.
- 01:19:23A type of assistance.
- 01:19:25Not because it's needed,
- 01:19:26but because we can provide it.
- 01:19:30And I think that comes up in the remote
- 01:19:33global health context too, right?
- 01:19:35I mean, is it that the community
- 01:19:38really needs remote phone based
- 01:19:40diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy?
- 01:19:41Or is it because we on our
- 01:19:43gadgets developed a really cool
- 01:19:45app for diabetic retinopathy
- 01:19:47and think they should have it?
- 01:19:49And that's what those are two?
- 01:19:52Those look very different.
- 01:19:54Ethically great.
- 01:19:59And here's a comment from.
- 01:20:01Tom Duffy your description of how
- 01:20:03we should behave in these encounters travels
- 01:20:06in the territory of Virtue and Medicine.
- 01:20:08Prudence, Justice, Temperance
- 01:20:10and Fortitude are enchantment
- 01:20:13with principle based ethics moves
- 01:20:15such an ethical engagement to the
- 01:20:18sidelines or even out of the picture.
- 01:20:21Could you come in?
- 01:20:23I think that I appreciate the comment and.
- 01:20:28Yeah, maybe it wasn't.
- 01:20:30Clear enough, but I I'm hoping to provide.
- 01:20:34Or at least explore a bit
- 01:20:36of a corrective to that.
- 01:20:38With that, that's where I think
- 01:20:40that some of these. Concepts of.
- 01:20:44Introspection and humility.
- 01:20:46And in also in that
- 01:20:48article is social justice.
- 01:20:52Do you have a different?
- 01:20:55A different tenor. And a different
- 01:20:59impact on the way we think about ethics.
- 01:21:02Um, and to me it just really is encapsulated
- 01:21:06in that distinction of the questions between.
- 01:21:10What is being done? Versus why?
- 01:21:15Or how? So I I agree with the
- 01:21:19comment and I'm hoping to think.
- 01:21:22About how we can.
- 01:21:24Together promote that kind of a corrective.
- 01:21:28Certainly plenty of of critics
- 01:21:31of the principles out there.
- 01:21:34I know that the authors of the
- 01:21:36principles think that the principles
- 01:21:37capture a common morality and we
- 01:21:38could get into a philosophical
- 01:21:40discussion about whether or not
- 01:21:41that you know is or is not the case,
- 01:21:44but I think I think in the real world
- 01:21:46there should be space for these other.
- 01:21:48These other concepts and other principles,
- 01:21:50so I don't know.
- 01:21:51I agree with the comment.
- 01:21:54Thank you.
- 01:21:57Given global travel restrictions,
- 01:21:58many global health programs are currently
- 01:22:01on standby or have been shut down.
- 01:22:03How and when do you think such programs
- 01:22:06can resume in a safe and acceptable way?
- 01:22:08And who will issue guidance on what
- 01:22:11counts as safe and acceptable?
- 01:22:14Yeah, this I probably in that as a
- 01:22:16factor them as a fact of the matter.
- 01:22:19A lot of these programs.
- 01:22:21That are institutionally based will
- 01:22:23be decided based on institutional.
- 01:22:25Policies and procedures
- 01:22:26may be informed by you.
- 01:22:29Know national level CDC type
- 01:22:31guidance around travel and so on.
- 01:22:33We certainly talk enough to people
- 01:22:36in other countries where you know
- 01:22:39vaccines are just not happening.
- 01:22:41You know, talk about a big
- 01:22:44ethics issue right?
- 01:22:45As much as we want vaccine.
- 01:22:48For the US, you know we could have a
- 01:22:50whole conversation about global vaccine
- 01:22:53distribution and the fairness or unfairness.
- 01:22:57Of the way the vaccines have been purchased,
- 01:22:59but certainly talking to some
- 01:23:00of the global partners we have,
- 01:23:02there are just no vaccines there.
- 01:23:04But I suspect that would be a major
- 01:23:07barrier and a question of fairness
- 01:23:09when it comes to things like vaccine,
- 01:23:11passports and so on that
- 01:23:13institutions won't like.
- 01:23:15Travelers going to places where
- 01:23:16there's not been vaccinations,
- 01:23:18I hesitate to make a prediction,
- 01:23:20but gosh, it sure seems like.
- 01:23:23Start imagine some of these programs being
- 01:23:25back to normal in this calendar year.
- 01:23:27I don't know whether other folks
- 01:23:29may think differently, but.
- 01:23:32Be hard to imagine before the end of 2021.
- 01:23:36Alright,
- 01:23:36well let me ask one last question.
- 01:23:40You have indicated your
- 01:23:42ambivalence about whether.
- 01:23:44Western ethics,
- 01:23:46or our exporting of our ethical
- 01:23:49principles are Western ethics was
- 01:23:51a good idea is a good idea I I've
- 01:23:55learned from Michelle Berry many
- 01:23:58years ago that it's very different
- 01:24:00dealing with the community in Africa,
- 01:24:03for example, where there is that it
- 01:24:07is understood that the decisions will
- 01:24:09be made by the Community leaders,
- 01:24:12The Chieftains and and.
- 01:24:14Those it's not only in Africa,
- 01:24:17but in been in a number of of societies.
- 01:24:21Is that how does one deal with all that?
- 01:24:29Just to finish up on.
- 01:24:32Just just a simple question.
- 01:24:33If yes, yes, yes.
- 01:24:38There is certainly is room for a correction.
- 01:24:43And I'll see why I maybe I wouldn't
- 01:24:46go out like we have to be mindful.
- 01:24:49I think of the potential to become.
- 01:24:53Moral relativists right?
- 01:24:54Most of us don't especially like for me
- 01:24:58like part of my background and my PhD
- 01:25:01training in philosophy was in human rights.
- 01:25:04And so we'd like to think
- 01:25:06that it's some point.
- 01:25:07At some level there is a substantive.
- 01:25:11Moral principle right?
- 01:25:12And so we don't want to.
- 01:25:14When we say we decolonize global
- 01:25:16health ethics, we maybe don't want to
- 01:25:19go so far as to become relativists.
- 01:25:23About it on the other hand,
- 01:25:25back to this notion of a corrective.
- 01:25:28It certainly seems to me like there is
- 01:25:31a there is room for correcting that.
- 01:25:34I'll say I've been sceptical,
- 01:25:37for example,
- 01:25:37as a concrete example by the ways in
- 01:25:40which we have tended to export the
- 01:25:43Institutional Review Board process,
- 01:25:45and of course its reliance on Belmont
- 01:25:48principles for analyzing ethics.
- 01:25:52Even if we don't go so
- 01:25:53far as to be relativist,
- 01:25:55there would be much to gain.
- 01:25:57From learning about and understanding and
- 01:26:00thinking through ethics problems differently.
- 01:26:03Through lenses that are different than.
- 01:26:06The principles of bioethics
- 01:26:07or biomedical ethics.
- 01:26:08As we've learned them,
- 01:26:10so I guess if I if I had to put
- 01:26:13my money down, so to speak,
- 01:26:14I see it as that kind of a corrective as
- 01:26:17a new way of learning and understanding,
- 01:26:19only because in the back of my
- 01:26:21head is this human rights world,
- 01:26:23and there may be some substantive
- 01:26:25principles that are so important that
- 01:26:28we would actually hold on to them.
- 01:26:31And if I had a whole another hour and a half,
- 01:26:33I would actually answer your question.
- 01:26:37Well, we will try to make sure that
- 01:26:39you get another hour and a half
- 01:26:42sometime in the not too distant future.
- 01:26:45Thank you for a superb
- 01:26:47presentation and and talk.
- 01:26:49So this is just been most
- 01:26:51informative an most enjoyable.
- 01:26:53Thank you again and take care
- 01:26:55and we do want you to come back.
- 01:26:59Thank you thank you alright bye bye.