Roundtable

The purpose of a Roundtable format vs. sequential format is to provide the opportunity to have extensive discussion (at parallel tables) on a specific topic, here with a practical focus on case studies in public health ethics. This provides an interactive process involving greater engagement by session attenders. Topics include a) issues regarding abortion in international context; b) ethical issues concerning foreign grass-roots faith-based organizations in China providing both aid to vulnerable populations not otherwise addressed and externalities given the nature of informal interventions; c) analysis of the intersection of public officials, media and policy motivating and following a February 2005 alert by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene about a “rare strain of multi-drug resistant HIV that rapidly progresses to AIDS”; d) reflection on ethical frameworks via ethical review of a clinical drug trial (Valtrex, 2006) "that put vulnerable, minority, pregnant women at risk by placing them in a control group". Note that Roundtable sessions are now eligible for Continuing Education credit review.

Session Objectives: • Participation in an interactive process concerning analysis of a concrete topic in public health ethics. • Develop practical formats for communicating regarding complex social-ethical issues. • Identify benefits and burdens, and strategies for balancing benefits and burdens in complex social contexts involving public health ethics. • Analyze the construction, intended and unintended consequences, ethical and policy implications, and proximate and politcal motivations in media use in a public health alert by public health officials. • Through a case study analyze background ethical norms and concrete decisions involving an at-risk population in a clinical trial context deficient in safeguards and follow-up.

CE Credits: CME, Health Education (CHES), Nursing