Virtual Journal Club

Overview

From February 22 – May 31 2010, the Institute of Population and Public Health (IPPH) hosted a virtual journal club on population health ethics for a diverse group of over 30 researchers, policy makers, and practitioners who are interested in population and public health ethics. The aim of this journal club was to support and stimulate discussions about the ethical foundations of population health interventions. Leading scientists and ethicists who are addressing this issue were invited to present and discuss their work with participants.

Objectives

To consider fundamental questions about the application of population health ethics principles and frameworks to the design and evaluation of population health interventions.
To identify and discuss concrete situations for the application of population and public health ethics frameworks.

Format

The virtual journal club consisted of a series of six discussion sessions held using distance technology. Each hour and a half session featured a speaker invited to give a 15-20 minute presentation regarding one of their publications included in the annotated bibliography on population health ethics prepared by IPPH. The rest of the time was devoted to open discussion between the speaker and participants. Each participant was asked to commit to, prepare for, and attend a minimum of four of the six sessions. All sessions for this phase of the initiative were held in English.

Participants

Over 30 individuals representing 26 different organizations across Canada participated in the journal club. These participants included researchers, policy makers, practitioners, and knowledge translation representatives interested in population and public health ethics. Participants from a range of career stages and a variety of disciplinary backgrounds were recruited in order to spur innovation and build capacity in this emerging field. A combination of targeted invitations and an open call to the broader IPPH community were used to recruit participants.

Geographic Distribution of Journal Club Participants

Geographic Distribution of Journal Club Participants

Speakers and Articles Discussed

Note: Please email us if you would like to access to the audio recording of any of the presentations listed below. Please note that the recordings are available in English only and include only the presentation and not the group discussion portion of the journal club session.

Session 1: Dr. James Wilson, University College London
Wilson J. Towards a normative framework for public health ethics and policy. Public Health Ethics 2009;2(2):184-194.

Session 2: Dr. Françoise Baylis, Dalhousie University
Baylis F, Kenny NP, Sherwin S. A relational account of public health ethics. Public Health Ethics 2008;1(3):196-209.

Session 3 : Dr. Jason Robert, Arizona State University
Robert JS, Kirk DD. Ethics, biotechnology, and global health: the development of vaccines in transgenic plants. Am J Bioethics 2006;6(4):W29-41.

Session 4 : Dr. Daniel Wikler, Harvard University
Wikler D, Brock DW. Population-level bioethics: mapping a new agenda. In: Dawson A, Verweij M (eds). Ethics, Prevention, and Public Health. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2007. pp.91-108.

Session 5: Dr. Ross Upshur, University of Toronto [We apologize, the recording for this session is not available.] Upshur RE. Principles for the justification of public health intervention. Can J Public Health 2002;93(2):101-103.