Past Events
"The Role of Codes of Ethics in the Professionalization of the Public Health Workforce"
4. November 2024, 19.30 - 20.30 (CET)
Katarzyna Czabanowska, PhD, MA, Professor of Public Health Leadership and Workforce Development, Department of International Health, Care and Public Health Research Institute (CAPHRI), Maastricht University, The Netherlands
James C. Thomas, MPH, PhD, Emeritus Professor of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA
Zoom
The professionalization of its workforce has been a key topic to the field of public health for the last years, not only since the Covid-19-pandemic.
Bachelor and Master programmes in public health have been developed and taught in the last decades and public health institutions have been opened for graduates from this field. The public health community is discussing competences for learning in the field ever since. Ethics belongs to the concept of an academically educated “profession” and thus “professionalization” deals with the question how to implement an ethos, morals or ethics in the education and practice of the public health workforce.
One approach to integrate a moral point of view here is to develop and implement so called “Codes of Ethics” or “Codes of Conducts” and to learn how to apply them in practice, including solving conflicts among the norms presented in such a code. Are codes meaningful tools for this context? What norms, values and virtues should they entail? Would every local public health community develop its own “code”? These and other questions are pertinent to the international agenda of professionalization of the public health workforce – and will be raised during this academic online seminar.
Moderator: Dr. Peter Schröder-Bäck, Professor of Ethics, Institute of History and Ethics, University of Applied Sciences for Police and Public Administration North Rhine-Westphalia (HSPV NRW), Germany.
„Der Aufbau des Bundesinstitut für Prävention und Aufklärung in der Medizin (BIPAM) – auch ein Thema für Philosophie und Ethik!?“
10. Juni 2024,19:30 - 20:30 MEST
Prof. Dr. Dr. hc mult Helmut Brand, Maastricht University
Prof. Dr. Ansgar Gerhardus, Universität Bremen
Zoom
Das Bundesinstitut für Prävention und Aufklärung in der Medizin (BIPAM) befindet sich derzeit in Gründung. Der Bundesgesundheitsminister erhofft sich dadurch eine Stärkung von Primärprävention und öffentlicher Gesundheit. Ein genauer Zuschnitt des neuen Bundesinstituts ist noch nicht bekannt, die Bundeszentrale für gesundheitliche Aufklärung und Teile des Robert-Koch-Instituts sollen jedoch in diesem Institut aufgehen. Damit werden Institutionen der öffentlichen Gesundheit in Deutschland neu geordnet. Kritik am geplanten BIPAM selbst kommt aus Institutionen, die von der Neuordnung direkt betroffen sind als auch von Wissenschaftlern, die einen nachhaltigen Public Health-Ansatz vermissen lassen.
In unserer Diskussionsrunde haben wir Statements zu den Plänen von zwei Referenten mit ausgewiesener Expertise gehört und public-health-ethische und gesundheitsphilosophische Implikationen erörtert.
The WHO international pandemic accord
22nd April 2024
Dr. Jaouad Mahjour, Head of the WHO Secretariat to INB and IHR Amendments, was able to give an “Update on WHO international pandemic accord":
In December 2021, the World Health Assembly decided to establish an intergovernmental negotiating body (INB) to draft a WHO an agreement on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. In light of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the WHO member states wanted to make sure that communities, governments and all sectors of society are better prepared and protected in order to prevent and respond to future pandemics. It is one of the central goals of the accord to ensure equity in accessing both tools to prevent pandemics and health care for all people.
Is the public health “war on obesity” doing more harm than good?
12th December 2023
Assoc. Prof. Angela Ballantyne spoke on what good the war on obesity has achieved, what harm it has caused, and whether it has generated a net increase in health and well-being, at reasonable cost.
Epistemic Corruption and Epistemic Authority: Science, Ethics and Public Trust during COVID-19
26th June 2023
Dr. Alison Thompson explained the concepts of "epistemic corruption" and "epistemic authority" (coined by Sergio Sismondo) and applyed them to understand the role of public trust in pandemic response.
Public health and the role of unconventional solidarity groups
22th May 2023
The topic of Dr. Peter West-Oram talk were different types of solidatity groups. He elaborated on how they differ from, relate to, and interact with one another, and the consequences that this can have for public health.
The role of Public Health Ethics in Lebanon
27th February 2023
Prof. Jihad Makoul gave a talk about the role of Public Health Ethics in Lebanon. She especially elaborated on the role of non-governmental third parties and posed interesting questions on which role they are playing in a human-rights-based approach to Public Health.
Public Health Ethics in Denmark
26th September 2022
In his talk Prof. Klaus Høye gave insights into Danish Public Health Ethics before, during and possibly after the Covid-19 pandemic.
Comparing Vaccination-Policies
7th March 2022
In short talks by Peter West-Oram (University of Sussex, UK), Ryoa Chung (Université de Montréal, Canada), Christian Munthe (University of Gothenburg, Sweden) and Georg Marckmann (LMU, Munich) the event gave an insight into the different vaccination policies in UK, Canada, Sweden and Germany.
Kick-off-Meeting
20th October 2020
The working group’s first meeting to discuss ideas of how to work together and what topics to look at. As this was in the midst of the Covid-19 Pandemic it started out as a working group concerning Public Health ethical issues concerning the Pandemic.