Tag: NIH

Welcome 2017 HIV and Drug Abuse Prevention Research Ethics Training Institute Fellows!

May 16, 2017

The Fordham University HIV and Drug Abuse Prevention Research Ethics Training Institute (RETI) is pleased to announce that the following individuals have been selected as 2017 fellows:

Cook
Dr. Stephanie Cook, New York University
Estreet
Dr. Anthony Estreet, Morgan State University
Fielding Miller
Dr. Rebecca Fielding-Miller, University of California, San Diego
Guta
Dr. Adrian Guta, University of Windsor
Pagano-Therrien
Dr. Jesica Pagano-Therrien, University of Massachusetts 
Pasipanodya
Dr. Elizabeth Pasipanodya, University of California, San Diego
Philbin
Dr. Morgan Philbin, Columbia University
John_S
Dr. John Sauceda, University of California, San Francisco

The Fordham University  HIV and Drug Abuse Prevention Research Ethics Training Institute (RETI), now in its 7th year, is a training grant sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) (R25 DA031608-07), Principal Investigator, Dr. Celia B. Fisher, Director, Center for Ethics Education). The RETI provides early-career investigators in the social, behavioral, medical and public health fields with an opportunity to gain research ethics training. In doing so, RETI addresses the urgent need for HIV and drug use investigators who can identify and address ethical issues, engage drug using and other at-risk communities in the construction and evaluation of population sensitive research protections, and generate empirical data to inform ethical practice and policies for HIV prevention science. Through their funded Mentored Research Projects (MRP), RETI fellows generate empirical data, publish their findings in a variety of high-impact academic journals, and are trained to apply for increasing grant opportunities.

The program’s aims are to: (1) increase trainees’ knowledge of and capacity to address key ethical issues in HIV and drug abuse prevention research; (2) increase trainees’ capacity to ethically engage participants and communities in the construction of participant protections that reflect the values and merit the trust of all stakeholders in HIV and drug abuse prevention research.; (3) increase trainees’ capacity to conduct research that will generate data to inform HIV and drug abuse prevention research practices and policies; and (4) create and sustain an information and communication network for trainees, faculty and others in the field for enhancing ethical knowledge, ethical dialogue and future professional collaborations in HIV and drug abuse prevention research ethics.

Please visit our Institute Fellows page for the biographies of both this cohort and earlier cohorts of RETI Fellows, as well as read more information about their mentored research projects (MRP) and publications.

We look forward to welcoming our new fellows to the Institute in July!

Ethics & Society Newsfeed: October 14, 2016

October 14, 2016
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Health Care and Bioethics

DNA database highlights need for new medical privacy protections
Creation of a national repository of genetic information is seen by some as crucial to reducing medical costs and improving people’s healthcare.

‘Big data’ could mean big problems for people’s healthcare privacy
Public and private insurers are spending millions of dollars on systems that can predict people’s future healthcare needs.

Colorado Wrestles With Ethics Of Aid In Dying As Vote Looms
Colorado man says he would like the option to end his life rather than face a painful death and advocates for Colorado’s Proposition 106  or “death with dignity.”

The NIH needs to review the ethics of research on primates
Congress asked the National Institutes of Health to review “its ethical policies and processes” on nonhuman primate research “to ensure it has appropriate justification for animal research protocols.”

Breast Cancer Death Rates Are Down, But Racial Disparities Persist
Women are less likely to die of breast cancer than they were a decade ago, but not all women are benefiting from that trend.

Continue reading “Ethics & Society Newsfeed: October 14, 2016”

Will Research on 10,000 New Yorkers Fuel Future Racial Health Inequality?

August 30, 2016
Image via Flickr.
Image via Flickr

By Celia B. Fisher, Ph.D.

A 20-year, multi-million dollar study of more than 10,000 New Yorkers scheduled to begin next year claims that it will enable the development of theories, therapeutics, and policies to improve the health and quality of human life.  Although still in the planning stages, the breadth of the data collection proposed (including health habits, biological data, and geospatial mapping) combined with the lack of detail accompanying such a widespread publicity effort raises questions regarding the extent to which the research risks of such an endeavor have been well thought out.

Continue reading “Will Research on 10,000 New Yorkers Fuel Future Racial Health Inequality?”

Best intentions, worst outcomes: Ethical and legal challenges for international research involving sex workers

June 17, 2016
Image via
Image via

Central America hosts a thriving sex work industry that is a key source and transit region for sex trafficking and undocumented migrants engaged in sex work. Sex workers – particularly those who are migrant – are at high risk for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections as well as physical abuse and in some cases murder. However, the existing network of international, national, and local criminal and human rights policies applicable to sex workers can be confusing and contradictory, not only in the context of access to sexual health preventions and interventions, but also for investigators seeking to conduct that can lead to effective sexual health services.

Continue reading “Best intentions, worst outcomes: Ethical and legal challenges for international research involving sex workers”

Ethics & Society Newsfeed: March 4, 2016

March 4, 2016
money feet
Via NYPL Digital Collections.

NIH vowed to move its research chimps from labs, but only 7 got safe haven in 2015
Nearly three years after the National Institutes of Health announced that hundreds of chimpanzees held for invasive medical experiments would be retired to a sanctuary, relatively few have been so lucky. Only seven made the trip in all of 2015.

The Brain Gets Its Day in Court
A new study found that the number of judicial opinions referencing neuroscience as evidence more than doubled between 2005 and 2012.

The Consequences of Poor Science Education in Kindergarten
A majority of low-income and minority kindergarteners come in with poor general science knowledge—and closing that gap may be crucial for ensuring academic success later on.

A Baby, a Baboon Heart, and the Transplant Heard Round the World: The Story of the First Neonatal Cardiac Xenotransplant in History
Stephanie Fae Beauclair, better known to history as Baby Fae, was born October 14, 1984 with hypoplastic left heart syndrome. Baby Fae needed a heart transplant to survive but a human heart was not available to her. What happened next challenged the boundaries of medical science and bioethics.

Continue reading “Ethics & Society Newsfeed: March 4, 2016”

Ethics & Society Newsfeed: February 19, 2016

February 19, 2016
Photo via Naitonal Archives Catalog
Participants in the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment. | Photo via National Archives Catalog

Voices for Our Fathers Keeping Memory of Horrific Study Alive
The Tuskegee syphilis experiment recruited poor men with “bad blood” from rural Macon County, Ala., as test subjects. The study went on for decades, despite its ethical issues.

‘Government only pays for the positive outcomes.’ A strikingly new approach to social problems.
Two states announced Tuesday that they would experiment with an unusual method of financing human service programs that allows governments to pay nothing unless the programs are successful.

Needle Exchanges Can Now Get Federal Funding
Lifting the ban underscores a growing recognition that needle exchange programs can help reduce the the spread of infectious diseases

A First-Aid Class for Mental Health
Most people know how to help someone with a cut or a scrape. But what about a panic attack?

Continue reading “Ethics & Society Newsfeed: February 19, 2016”

NIH’s New Definition of “Children” Finally Gets it Right: A Welcome Change for Children’s Health Equity

October 19, 2015

NIH_Logo

By Celia B. Fisher, Ph.D.

Under current federal research regulations, a “child” is defined as an individual younger than 21 years of age – a policy that has produced inequities in health research for youth younger than 18 years of age.

Beginning January 25th, 2016, that will change: the age of a child will be defined as an individual less than 18 years old. This is a welcome change that can begin to address the urgent need for age- and population-targeted research to avoid the use of treatments tested in young adult populations that may be unsuited for adolescents and children.

Continue reading “NIH’s New Definition of “Children” Finally Gets it Right: A Welcome Change for Children’s Health Equity”