Ethics of sharing medical knowledge with the community: is the physician responsible for medical outreach during a pandemic?

A recent update to the Geneva Declaration's 'Physician Pledge' involves the ethical requirement of physicians to share medical knowledge for the benefit of patients and healthcare. With the spread of COVID-19, pockets exist in every country with different viral expressions. In the Chareidi ('ultra-orthodox') religious community, for example, rates of COVID-19 transmission and dissemination are above average compared with other communities within the same countries. While viral spread in densely populated communities is common during pandemics, several reasons have been suggested to explain the blatant flouting of public health regulations. It is easy to fault the Chareidi population for their proliferation of COVID-19, partly due to their avoidance of social media and internet aversion. However, the question remains: who is to blame for their community crisis? The ethical argument suggests that from a public health perspective, the physician needs to reach out and share medical knowledge with the community. The public's best interests are critical in a pandemic and should supersede any considerations of cultural differences. By all indications, therefore, the physician has an ethical obligation to promote population healthcare and share medical knowledge based on ethical concepts of beneficence, non-maleficence, utilitarian ethics as well as social, procedural and distributive justice. This includes the ethical duty to reduce health disparities and convey the message that individual responsibility for health has repercussions within the context of broader social accountability. Creative channels are clearly demanded for this ethical challenge, including measured medical paternalism with appropriate cultural sensitivity in physician community outreach.

An Internet for Some threatens health for All: What effects could the repeal of net neutrality in the USA have on individual and population health?

In the United States of America, the Federal Communications Commission's repeal of the popular Open Internet Order (a.k.a 'net neutrality') has yielded pointed criticism from many different sectors, but it has yet to be examined for its potential effect on the public's health. In this commentary, we focus on the health implications of this policy change, considering expert opinion on the subject, past history, and global perspectives. We argue that the repeal of net neutrality has the potential to compromise health education and promotion efforts by widening the 'digital divide', thereby impairing health literacy and exacerbating health inequities. By negatively affecting people's ability to access, understand, and use unbiased, evidence-based health information to improve and maintain their health, the repeal of net neutrality may hinder the World Health Organization's vision of 'Health for All' by dismantling public protections in the name of corporate profit.

Collaborative health education for Somali Bantu refugee women in Kansas City.

OBJECTIVE: To partner with and understand the health of Somali Bantu refugee women, small group sessions were designed and conducted using a community-based collaborative action research (CBCAR) approach. Health topics identified by this community were presented in 42 sessions with eleven women. Follow-up individual interviews with the women were used to ask questions about health experiences and plan for future health education. The objective of this qualitative study was to provide refugee women with knowledge to help them adjust to new health challenges in the United States, and to share personal narratives in a safe environment. RESULTS: The process of sharing health information with the women resulted in a collaborative exchange of culture and community. Individual interviews allowed women to voice their opinions outside of the influence of their community elders. CBCAR is an effective tool to involve refugee communities, and other populations small in number, in addressing their unique health challenges. Results from this study demonstrated that small group sessions and a CBCAR approach can be effective in sharing knowledge within small communities of refugee women. Findings from the study will assist in the future planning of health education programs for refugee women and their families in this community.

The picture talk project: Aboriginal community input on consent for research.

BACKGROUND: The consent and community engagement process for research with Indigenous communities is rarely evaluated. Research protocols are not always collaborative, inclusive or culturally respectful. If participants do not trust or understand the research, selection bias may occur in recruitment, affecting study results potentially denying participants the opportunity to provide more knowledge and greater understanding about their community. Poorly informed consent can also harm the individual participant and the community as a whole. METHODS: Invited by local Aboriginal community leaders of the Fitzroy Valley, the Kimberley, Western Australia, The Picture Talk project explores the consent process for research. Focus groups of Aboriginal community members were conducted to establish preferences for methods of seeking individual consent. Transcripts were analysed through NVivo10 Qualitative software using grounded theory with inductive and deductive coding. Themes were synthesised with quotes highlighted. RESULTS: Focus groups with Aboriginal community members (n = 6 focus groups of 3-7 participants) were facilitated by a Community Navigator as a cultural guide and interpreter and a researcher. Participants were recruited from all main language groups of the Fitzroy Valley - Gooniyandi, Walmajarri, Wangkatjungka, Bunuba and Nikinya. Participants were aged ≥18 years, with 5 female groups and one male group. Themes identified include: Reputation and trust is essential; The Community Navigator is key; Pictures give the words meaning - milli milli versus Pictures; Achieving consensus in circles; Signing for consent; and Research is needed in the Valley. CONCLUSION: Aboriginal communities of the Fitzroy Valley recommend that researchers collaborate with local leaders, develop trust and foster a good reputation in the community prior to research. Local Aboriginal researchers should be employed to provide cultural guidance throughout the research process and interpret local languages especially for elders. Pictures are preferred to written text to explain research information and most prefer to sign for consent. The Fitzroy Valley welcomes research when collaborative and for the benefit of the community. Future research could include exploring how to support young people, promote health screening and improve understanding of medical knowledge.

Experiential learning in nursing and allied health education: Do we need a national framework to guide ethical practice?

Experiential learning is widely used in health courses to develop students' clinical skills. Students act as models for demonstrations of practical techniques and work in small groups to practise clinical skills. These classes present a number of ethical challenges including removing clothing, physical touch and disclosing personal information. The aim of this study was to ascertain the views of nursing and allied health regulators and professional associations regarding the need for a national framework to facilitate ethical experiential learning in health courses. Ten semi-structured interviews were conducted either face-to-face or by phone and their audio-recordings transcribed verbatim for thematic analysis. Students' willingness to participate as models was taken-for-granted by educators. Risks to students' wellbeing were considered minor and outweighed by the benefits of experiential learning. The increasing diversity of students enrolled in health courses has increased awareness of students' rights, including choosing not to participate in some learning activities. Ongoing cycles of curriculum review provided an opportunity to respond to changing social values, including increased collective awareness and respect for, students' rights, cultural diversity, professional standards, and risk/benefit analysis of all student activities. There is a need for a national framework to guide ethical experiential learning in practical classes.

Bacteria on display-can we, and should we? Artistically exploring the ethics of public engagement with science in microbiology.

The field of microbiology presents unique opportunities, and accompanying challenges, for artistic collaborations. On one hand, artistic works enable exploration of the aesthetics and of issues in biomedical science and new technologies, and draw in new, non-scientific audiences. On the other hand, creating art with microbes requires rigorous consideration of health and safety. Artists working in this field, known as Bio Art, tend to want to push the boundaries of what is possible or 'known', and work with new biomedical tools as they become available. However, when an artist's proposed work is raising novel questions where the risks are not fully understood, who should decide if the benefits outweigh the consequences? The reflections of an art-collaborating scientist are related. Also, considered is how close working relationships between disciplines can enable new ethical frameworks that consider these decisions, respecting artists' endeavours as a beneficial form of research in its own right, and even learning from the rich perspectives of artists to broaden reflections on the practice of science.

About time: how time influences and facilitates patient autonomy in the clinical encounter.

In this article I discuss the little examined relationship between time and patient autonomy. Using the findings from a study on the experience of premenopausal cancer patients making fertility preservation decisions during their treatment, I focus on how the patients in the study understood time, and how this understanding interacted with and influenced their decision-making. I then analyse in more depth the importance of time in patient decision-making, and the relationship of time to concepts of patient autonomy and decision-making in the field of bioethics more generally. Focusing on the relational conception of autonomy, I conclude that time is an integral part of patient autonomy which warrants further research, such that it can be better integrated into concepts of patient autonomy, and the policy and guidelines that they inform and influence.

Transversalización de la ética en intervenciones comunitarias y atención integral en salud para personas viviendo con VIH / Ethics mainstreaming in community interventions and integral health care to people living with HIV

En este artículo se presenta una reflexión sobre la vinculación de las intervenciones comunitarias y la atención integral en salud, para personas infectadas por el virus de la inmunodeficiencia humana (VIH), desde una perspectiva ética. Se parte de revisar los conceptos sobre moral, ética y bioética, además del escenario de las intervenciones comunitarias como estrategia final en la mejora de la salud de una comunidad. La atención integral en salud se valora con acciones de vigilancia, tales como: promoción de salud, prevención de enfermedades, vigilar y controlar el daño, así como brindar una atención dirigida a la recuperación y rehabilitación de la salud de las personas, con pertinencia cultural y enfoques de género, con un componente ético que asegure el adecuado funcionamiento de las intervenciones comunitarias y la atención integral en salud (AU).

This article offers a reflection, from an ethical point of view, on the linking of the community interventions and the comprehensive health care for people living with HIV. It begins reviewing the concepts of moral, ethics and bioethics, and also the surroundings of the community interventions as a final strategy in improving the community health. The comprehensive health care is assessed through surveillance actions as health promotion, disease prevention, monitoring and damage control; it also includes providing care aimed to people´s health recovery and rehabilitation, with cultural pertinence and gender approach and an ethic component, ensuring the adequate functioning of the community interventions and the comprehensive health care (AU).

The emergence of ethical issues in the provision of online sexual health outreach for gay, bisexual, two-spirit and other men who have sex with men: perspectives of online outreach workers.

BACKGROUND: Mobile applications and socio-sexual networking websites are used by outreach workers to respond synchronously to questions and provide information, resources, and referrals on sexual health and STI/HIV prevention, testing, and care to gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (GB2M). This exploratory study examined ethical issues identified by online outreach workers who conduct online sexual health outreach for GB2M. METHODS: Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted between November 2013 and April 2014 with online providers and managers (n = 22) to explore the benefits, challenges, and ethical implications of delivering online outreach services in Ontario, Canada. Interviews were digitally recorded and transcribed verbatim. Thematic analyses were conducted, and member-checking, analyses by multiple coders, and peer debriefing supported validity and reliability. RESULTS: Four themes emerged on the ethical queries of providing online sexual health outreach for GB2M: (a) managing personal and professional boundaries with clients; (b) disclosing personal or identifiable information to clients; (c) maintaining client confidentiality and anonymity; and (d) security and data storage measures of online information. Participants illustrated familiarity with potential ethical challenges, and discussed ways in which they seek to mitigate and prevent ethical conflict. CONCLUSIONS: Implications of this analysis for outreach workers, researchers, bioethicists, and policy-makers are to: (1) understand ethical complexities associated with online HIV prevention and outreach for GB2M; (2) foster dialogue to recognize and address potential ethical conflict; and (3) identify competencies and skills to mitigate risk and promote responsive and accessible online HIV outreach.

[Ethics and methodology: the importance of promoting, evaluating and implementing education and humanities research in health]. / Ética y metodología: la necesidad de promover, evaluar e implementar la investigación en educación y humanidades en salud.

In this editorial we initially expose the agreements that have set the mechanisms to guarantee safety and fair treatment to human subjects in research. Later on, we offer alternatives from translational and multidisciplinary research to promote education and humanities research in health.

En el presente editorial se exponen, en un primer momento, los acuerdos que han establecido los mecanismos para garantizar la seguridad y el trato digno a las personas sujetas a investigación. Más tarde, se ofrecen alternativas, desde la investigación traslacional y la multidisciplina, para promover en el ámbito de la salud la investigación en educación y las humanidades.

Ethical considerations for sleep intervention in organizational psychology research.

Over the past several years, interest into the role of sleep in the workplace has grown. The theoretical shift from research questions examining sleep as an outcome to placing sleep as the independent variable has increased experimental approaches to manipulating sleep in organizational studies. This is an exciting trend that is likely to continue in the organizational sciences. However, sleep experimentation can also pose special challenges for organizational researchers unaccustomed to sleep science. In this commentary, I discuss five ethical considerations of conducting negative sleep interventions in organizational psychology research. I also provide recommendations for organizational researchers-or even other researchers in disciplines outside of sleep science-who wish to implement sleep interventions in their studies.

Vaccine Rejecting Parents' Engagement With Expert Systems That Inform Vaccination Programs.

In attempting to provide protection to individuals and communities, childhood immunization has benefits that far outweigh disease risks. However, some parents decide not to immunize their children with some or all vaccines for reasons including lack of trust in governments, health professionals, and vaccine manufacturers. This article employs a theoretical analysis of trust and distrust to explore how twenty-seven parents with a history of vaccine rejection in two Australian cities view the expert systems central to vaccination policy and practice. Our data show how perceptions of the profit motive generate distrust in the expert systems pertaining to vaccination. Our participants perceived that pharmaceutical companies had a pernicious influence over the systems driving vaccination: research, health professionals, and government. Accordingly, they saw vaccine recommendations in conflict with the interests of their child and "the system" underscored by malign intent, even if individual representatives of this system were not equally tainted. This perspective was common to parents who declined all vaccines and those who accepted some. We regard the differences between these parents-and indeed the differences between vaccine decliners and those whose Western medical epistemology informs reflexive trust-as arising from the internalization of countering views, which facilitates nuance.

Teachers' subjectivities and emotionality in HIV/AIDS teaching.

Schools play a significant role in conveying essential knowledge, skills and attitudes about HIV and AIDS to millions of learners, and are therefore at the forefront of addressing the HIV/AIDS pandemic. This has resulted in a shift in HIV/AIDS research to focus on the crucial role of teachers in HIV prevention. This paper explores the influence of teachers' subjectivities and emotionality on their teaching about HIV/AIDS. The paper draws on qualitative, narrative data gathered from five teachers teaching in a midlands town in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It finds that teachers' subject positions play a significant role in presenting compassionate, supportive and knowledgeable subjectivities in the classroom; and that their positive and negative emotions pivotally influence their teaching about HIV/AIDS. We argue that it is vital to consider how teachers position themselves, as this is intricately linked with their teaching about HIV/AIDS, and we draw attention to teaching about HIV/AIDS as an emotional practice.

Vaccine Refusal and Trust: The Trouble With Coercion and Education and Suggestions for a Cure.

There can be little doubt about the ethical imperative to ensure adequate vaccination uptake against certain infectious diseases. In the face of vaccine refusal, health authorities and providers instinctively appeal to coercive approaches or increased education as methods to ensure adequate vaccine uptake. Recently, some have argued that public fear around Ebola should be used as an opportunity for such approaches, should an Ebola vaccine become available. In this article, the author describes the difficulties associated with coercion and education when addressing vaccine opposition. Both coercion and education can cause opposite effects than intended in certain circumstances. The correct area of focus is to address the breakdown in trust within clinical relationships. The author presents suggestions for an approach towards vaccine refusal that may be more promising.

Ethics issues in social media-based HIV prevention in low- and middle-income countries.

Questions have been raised regarding participants' safety and comfort when participating in e-health education programs. Although researchers have begun to explore this issue in the United States, little research has been conducted in low- and middle-income countries, where Internet and social media use is rapidly growing. This article reports on a quantitative study with Peruvian men who have sex with men who had previously participated in the Harnessing Online Peer Education (HOPE) program, a Facebook-based HIV education program. The survey assessed participants' ethics-relevant perspectives during recruitment, consent, intervention, and follow-up.

Democratic education and its application to the health field / A educação democrática e sua aplicação ao campo da saúde

This study presents the Democratic Education proposal applied to the field of health and public health. Whereas the practice of health and public health implicate a large extent of decision-making by individuals, the democratic education proposal seeks to highlight the necessarily ethical dimension involved in such a decision, which it is believed to always be considered as a free and autonomous option for individuals, who have conditions to exercise this freedom. However, so this situation can effectively happen, it is necessary to question whether valid and intrinsically ethical behaviors are always those based, grounded in science and technology. In this context, the main task of the educator who works in the health area shall be to offer all conditions so this freedom of decision-making can be effectively exercised by the individuals. Hence, it is essential to consider diversity and differences, which are uncontested attributes of contemporaneity.

Apresenta-se neste trabalho a proposta de Educação Democrática aplicada ao campo da saúde e da saúde coletiva. Considerando que a prática da saúde e da saúde coletiva implicam em uma larga medida em tomada de decisões pelos indivíduos, a proposta da educação democrática busca dar relevo à dimensão necessariamente ética envolvida em tal tomada de decisão, que, acredita-se, deve ser sempre considerada como uma opção livre e autônoma dos indivíduos, que possuem condições para poderem exercer essa liberdade. Mas para que esta situação possa acontecer efetivamente, faz-se necessário questionar se os comportamentos válidos e intrinsecamente éticos são sempre aqueles baseados, fundamentados na ciência e na tecnologia. Neste quadro a tarefa magna do educador que atua na área da saúde consistirá em oferecer todas as condições para que tal liberdade de decisão possa ser efetivamente exercida pelos indivíduos. Para isso é indispensável considerar a diversidade e a diferença, incontestes atributos da contemporaneidade.

Ética nas ações educativas e de cuidado em saúde orientadas pela Educação Popular / Ethics in educational and health care actions oriented by popular education / Ética en las acciones educativas y de cuidado en salud orientadas por la educación popular

Este estudo objetiva analisar a ética nas ações educativas e de cuidado orientadas pela Educação Popular em Saúde, com base na experiência de extensionistas do Projeto Educação Popular e Atenção à Saúde da Família. Trata-se de estudo qualitativo realizado com dez extensionistas na Comunidade Maria de Nazaré, João Pessoa–PB. O material empírico foi coletado através das técnicas de entrevista e observação participante e analisado mediante técnica de Análise de Conteúdo. As reflexões evidenciaram a importância da valorização da subjetividade, da sensibilidade, do protagonismo, do vínculo afetivo, da defesa dos direitos humanos, da amorosidade, no agir ético direcionado ao cuidado à saúde da família. Esse estudo traz uma concepção de ética que transpõe o agir direcionado ao cumprimento de códigos de ética, usual na saúde...

This study aims to analyze ethics in educational and care actions oriented by Popular Education in Health, based on the extensionists experiences of the Popular Education and Family Health Care Project. This is a qualitative research done with ten extensionists in the Maria de Nazaré Community, João Pessoa-PB. The empirical material was collected through interviews and participant observation and analyzed by content analysis technique. The reflections showed the importance of valuing subjectivity, sensitivity, take the lead of your own life, affective bonding and loveliness in the ethical acts directed at health care family. This study brings a conception of ethics that transposes the directed act to compliance with ethics codes, usual in health...

Este estudio tiene por objetivo analizar la ética, en las acciones educativas y de cuidado, orientada por la Educación Popular en Salud, basándose en la experiencia de extensionistas del Proyecto de Educación Popular y Atención a la Salud de la Familia. Se trata de un estudio cualitativo realizado con diez extensionistas en la Comunidad Maria de Nazaré, João Pessoa, Paraíba – Brasil. Se colectó el material empírico a través de entrevistas y observación de participante, y se analizó por Análisis de Contenido. Las reflexiones evidenciaron la importancia de valorar la subjetividad, la sensibilidad, el protagonista, la vinculación afectiva, la defensa de los derechos humanos y la amorosidad, en la acción ética dirigida a la familia en el cuidado de la salud. Este estudio genera una concepción de ética que transpone la actuación dirigida al cumplimiento de los códigos de ética, usual en la salud...

[Development of a decision aid on post mortem organ donation - somewhere between evidence uncertainty, fears, and ethical and moral values]. / Entwicklung einer Entscheidungshilfe "Organspende nach dem Tod" - im Spannungsfeld zwischen Evidenz, Ungewissheit, Ängsten und ethisch-moralischen Wertvorstellungen.

The recently revised German transplantation law provides that people are to be supported to make informed decisions on post-mortem organ donation by implementing broad education campaigns. A comprehensive web-based decision aid "organ donation after death" was developed, evaluated and optimised utilising multiple methodological phases. The decision aid comprises 1) factual information in a question-answer format, 2) tools for the individual assessment of this information, and 3) narratives addressing attitudes and emotional aspects. The website content was compiled by participating experts and potential users of the decision aid. Potential users also participated in the usability evaluation. Version 1.0 was made publicly available on the Internet in April 2012. Currently, version 2.0 of the decision aid is being updated step-by-step, based on the results of the evaluation.