Innovative partnerships for enhancing public health ethics training

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in partnership with the Ethics Subcommittee of the Advisory Committee to the Director, is exploring a variety of models for establishing networks between public health practitioners and academic ethicists who have an interest in public health. In 2010, CDC initiated a series of webinars in order to share information about public health ethics and to identify public health ethics concerns of state and local health officials. Through these webinars, it became clear that most health departments do not have formal processes for addressing ethical challenges; instead, ethical issues are typically addressed through informal networks. During the webinars, health officials indicated that establishing more formal ethics networking opportunities would be beneficial for training their staff about public health ethics. Examples of such opportunities include providing training that pairs academic ethicists and public health professionals, developing partnerships between public health ethics and public health law, and establishing a public health ethics consortium. This presentation will elaborate on these efforts and will recount lessons learned though practical training experiences.