Postgraduate - UnitEPM5023 - Ethical issues in international health and research

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2014 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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6 points, SCA Band 2, 0.125 EFTSL

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Level	Postgraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences
Organisational Unit	Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine
Offered	Alfred Hospital Second semester 2014 (Day) Alfred Hospital Second semester 2014 (Off-campus)
Coordinator(s)	Dr Liz Bishop

Synopsis

This unit examines the colonial history of and contemporary ethical issues that pervade international health. It builds awareness of critical ethical issues in international health and research. A range of topics are considered including the geopolitical purposes served by international health research, the 10/90 disequilibrium, the relationship between research parties including host and sponsor countries, multilateral organisations, pharmaceutical companies, communites and research participants. The rules guiding research and essential components of ethical review process are examined. Issues of justice emerge as critical in this context.

Outcomes

On completion of this unit, students should be able to:

Demonstrate an understanding of the key ethical issues in research;
Show familiarity with the historical development of ethical review of medical research in its geopolitical context;
Show familiarity with current international and national guidelines for medical research;
Identify the substantive issues and controversies that arise when medical research sponsored by an industrialised country is conducted in a developing country.