The Ethics Section is pleased to invite abstract submissions for oral, roundtable, and poster sessions on topics concerning public health ethics and public health. We encourage submissions from academic researchers, public health practitioners, students and other public health partners. 

The Ethics Section notes that public health will face many challenges through the next several years, making public health a national and global priority. We seek abstracts that reflect research findings, case studies, and best practices promoting making the public's health a national priority.

• Prioritizing Public Health Using the APHA Code of Public Health Ethics
  Abstracts that relate to using the APHA Public Health Code of Ethics for guiding ethical decision-making in research, policy, and practice to prioritize the public’s health. Submissions on this topic might elaborate on how to apply the Public Health Code of Ethics framework to a specific dilemma or decision. Additionally, they could showcase how the Code of Ethics can interact with materials such as case studies or the creative arts to contribute to core competencies of the public health workforce across disciplines, agencies, organizations, local communities and society more broadly. Alternatively, they might highlight perceived limitations of the Code, or proposed amendments/additions to the Code.
• Prioritizing the Public's Health by Addressing Intersectionality of Social Determinants of Health
  Challenges of public health in addressing social determinants of health that impact intersections between health and all other areas of human flourishing; challenges of addressing the complexity of intersectionality of social issues. Examples could include: climate change, environmental health, food systems, educational attainment, reproductive health, economic robustness, housing, transportation, culture, 'place,' and/or built environment.
• Prioritizing the Public's Health through the Lens of Global Public Health Issues
  Challenges and developments in public health ethics globally, internationally, and in relation to U.S. public health. Examples include policies, research projects, and ethical case studies.
• Prioritizing the Public’s Health by Addressing the Vulnerabilities and Strengths of Minoritized Populations
  Exploring public health practice, research, academics and other cases that apply a public health ethics lens by addressing diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB), and addressing vulnerabilities and strengths of minoritized populations.
• Prioritizing the Public’s Health through Transparent Public Deliberation, Community Engagement and Building Responsive Partnerships
  Challenges of transparency and community engagement in building and maintaining responsive partnerships.  Examples include: deliberating and balancing ethical tradeoffs and considerations inherent to public health practice; actively collaborating with local communities in designing, evaluating, and funding public health programs; redressing failures of public health; and/or developing sound public health policy.
• Public Health Ethics and Environmental Challenges
  Ethical challenges of environmental public health addressing issues such as, food and water security, climate change, sustainability.
• Social and Historical Lessons
  Social and political history of public health, especially addressing local ethical challenges of the public health community.
• Using Artificial Intelligence in Public Health Practice and Research
  Ethical challenges of utilization of artificial intelligence (AI), large language models (LLMs), social media, algorithms, and "big data" systems in public health practice, including in institutes of higher learning and/or in state and local health.
• Other topics and session formats related to public health ethics will be considered
  

Submission instructions 

Please Note: APHA does not provide scholarships, grants or other financial support to cover meeting-related expenses for presenters or moderators. In some cases, some sections may offer scholarships, and those details will be provided on the APHA website the first week of June. Scholarships go fast and must be approved by the section on a first-come, first-service basis.

You do not need to be a member of APHA, the Ethics Section, or a professional in ethics, to submit an abstract. However, accepted presenters must become APHA members prior to the Annual Meeting. Please contact the program planners with any questions - Eldonna Chesnut (Eldonna.Chesnut@jocogov.org) and Caitlin McMahon (cem2173@cumc.columbia.edu)

If you are submitting from outside the U.S. and, if accepted, would require APHA confirmation for visa purposes, please include the contact information of your American consulate along with your contact information.

Please note that if you are submitting an abstract to another APHA section, their instructions might be slightly different. Ethics Section abstracts are limited to 350 words.

Abstracts are scored based on:

1. Relevance to public health ethics AND/OR relevance to the meeting theme.

2. Originality.

3. Quality and clarity of the description of what will be presented.

4. Quality and completeness of supporting data, theoretical model, and/or philosophical foundations of what will be presented.

5. Importance for public health practice.

Student Submissions

Submissions by students and trainees are especially encouraged. If you are a student or were first author on the submission while a student or trainee, please note this in the 'Presenting Author and Awards Submission' section of the abstract submission page to be considered for a graduate or undergraduate award. If you are a NIH K-awardee or other career development award recipient cultivating ethics or section related expertise, you are also eligible. 

Session Submission Preferences and Types

• Oral presentations are 15 minutes. Oral presenters are organized into panel discussion with up to four presenters. A minimum of 15 minutes of overall 1.5-hour session time should be allowed for questions/discussion with the audience.
• Round table sessions - presenters will host a table with a brief presentation of their abstract, Attendees have up to 3 rounds to hear a table presentation within the session.
• Poster sessions are typically one hour (with attendees approaching the presenter at their poster throughout the hour).

Continuing Education Credit

The Ethics Section requires all abstracts conform to the APHA Continuing Education (CE) requirements so that all Ethics sponsored sessions will be eligible for CE credits for attendees.

APHA values the ability to provide continuing education credit to physicians, nurses, health educators, veterinarians, and those certified in public health at its annual meeting. These attendees may be counting on attaining the credits needed for license renewal. Please complete all required information when submitting an abstract as incomplete information can disqualify a session for CE credit.

For a session to be eligible for Continuing Education Credit, each presenter must provide:

1) An abstract free of trade and/or commercial product names.

2) Only one or two MEASURABLE outcomes. (DO NOT USE “To understand” or “To learn” as objectives, they are not measurable.) Acceptable measurable action words are: Explain, Demonstrate, Analyze, Formulate, Discuss, Compare, Differentiate, Describe, Name, Assess, Evaluate, Identify, Design, Define, or List.

3) A signed Conflict of Interest (Disclosure) Form with a relevant Qualification Statement. Please indicate what qualifies you personally to speak on this topic. An example of an acceptable Qualification Statement can be viewed on the online Disclosure form.

Contact Mighty Fine at mighty.fine@apha.org if you have any questions concerning continuing education credit.

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Ready?

Program Planner Contact Information:

Eldonna Chesnut, MSN. BSN, RN
eldonna.chesnut@jocogov.org


and

Caitlin McMahon,
cem2173@cumc.columbia.edu