International Health Research Ethics Training Program

描述(申请人提供)：撒哈拉以南非洲仅占世界人口的11%，却承担了全球24%以上的疾病负担，70%以上的艾滋病毒感染者，仅占全球劳动力的3%，在卫生方面的支出不到世界财政资源的1%。以乌干达为例，该国有3500万人口，疾病负担沉重，只有7名乌干达专家接受过生物伦理学硕士培训。这7人是一个由9名生物伦理学家组成的小组的一部分，他们都在北美和欧洲接受过培训，其中2人在接受生物伦理学培训后离开该国，前往更绿色的牧场。需要在乌干达开始培训，以弥补供应缺口。由于接受培训的个人数量增加，该地区内的培训将降低计划的成本，并导致更高的保留率。该项目具有创新性，提出了可持续并行的三级国际道德培训计划，其中包括证书， 文凭和硕士学位的授予，为大约10年后的后续博士培训(不包括在本提案中)奠定坚实的基础。这一国际研究伦理计划的总体目标是培养可持续的毕业生，他们将显示出领导力，并为提高研究伦理的标准和实践做出重大贡献，以保护乌干达和更广泛的撒哈拉以南非洲地区研究参与者的安全和福利。这将通过以下方式实现：(1)能够在国际研究伦理方面提供领导并有效地将其应用于教学和指导个人参与健康研究、管理研究项目/计划以及提供生物伦理服务咨询和政策建议的毕业生。(2)能够对具有挑战性的伦理问题进行实证和应用研究的个人。(3)能够有效地为国际研究伦理提供咨询服务和政策建议的从业者和研究者。这将通过各种与道德有关的课程来完成，这些课程的授课以成人学习的使用原则和方案的其他特点为指导，目的是确保受训者将所获得的知识转移到其家庭机构环境中。预期这将有助于加强乌干达和该区域研究伦理能力的改进，以维持高质量的国际研究伦理。我们将与公共服务部和卫生部等相关政府部门合作，确保该项目毕业生的职业道路在乌干达得到很好的界定，从而可能成为其他非洲国家的榜样。有91年历史的Makerere大学拥有近4万名学生，是乌干达迄今为止历史最悠久、规模最大的大学，也是撒哈拉以南非洲研究密集度最高的大学之一，跻身非洲大陆前十名大学之列。健康科学学院有医学、公共卫生、生物医学和健康科学四大学院，其中包括护理系、药剂系和牙医系。由于学院有许多国际研究合作，该大学拥有一个规模庞大且迅速扩张的健康研究企业。东非区域国家集团(肯尼亚、卢旺达、坦桑尼亚、乌干达和布隆迪)推动了开创性的研究，这些研究对国际政策和做法的变化产生了影响，特别是对包括被忽视的热带病在内的传染病的政策和做法的变化，而且对非传染性疾病、保健系统和其他卫生挑战的影响也越来越大。Makerere大学的愿景是成为一所以研究为导向的大学，并成为公认的地区性参考中心，为伦理挑战提供建议，就优先挑战进行国际伦理研究，并发展生物伦理研究能力。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Sub Saharan Africa with only 11% of the world's population has more than 24% of the global disease burden, over 70% of the world's HIV infected persons, and only 3% of the global work force, and spends less than 1% of the world financial resources on health. In the case of Uganda, a country of 35 million people who suffer with a heavy disease burden, there are only 7 Ugandan specialists trained at masters level in bioethics. These 7 are part of a group of 9 bioethicists who were all trained in North America and Europe of whom 2 have since left the country for greener pastures after their bioethics training. There is need to start training in Uganda in order to bridge the supply gap. Training within the region will reduce the cost of the program as a result of the increased numbers of individual trained and result in higher retention rates. The project is innovative and proposes a sustainable concurrent three level international ethics training program that includes certificate, diploma and master's degree awards that build a strong foundation for subsequent doctoral training (not part of this proposal) in about ten years' time. The overarching goal of this international research ethics program is to produce a sustainable supply of graduates who will show leadership and significantly contribute to improving standards and practice of research ethics to protect the safety and welfare of research participants in Uganda and the wider sub-Saharan Africa region. This will be done by developing: (1) Graduates capable of providing leadership in international research ethics and apply it effectively in teaching and mentoring individuals to participate in health research, manage research projects/ programs and also offer bioethics services consultations and policy advice. (2) Individuals who can undertake empirical and applied research on challenging ethical issues. And (3) Practitioners and researchers who can effectively provide consultation services and policy advise in international research ethics. This will be done using various ethics related courses whose delivery is guided by the use principles of adult learning and other features of the program aimed at ensuring the transfer of knowledge gained by the trainee to their home institutional environment. This is expected to contribute to strengthening improvements in research ethics capacity in Uganda and in the region to sustain high quality of international research ethics. Working with the relevant government departments like ministries of Public Service and of Health we will ensure that a career path for graduates of the program is well defined in Uganda and this may thus become a role model for other African countries. The 91 year old Makerere University with a student population of nearly 40,000 is by far the oldest and largest university in Uganda and is one of the most research intensive universities in Sub-Saharan Africa, ranked among the top 10 universities on the continent. The College of Health Sciences has four large schools of Medicine, Public Health, Biomedical Sciences and Health Sciences that include the Departments of Nursing, Pharmacy and Dentistry. The university has a large and rapidly expanding health research enterprise due to the many international research collaborations the college has. The East African regional block of countries (Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Burundi) have contributed to ground breaking research that has impacted policy and practice changes internationally particularly on communicable diseases including neglected tropical diseases, but also increasingly on non-communicable diseases, health systems and other health challenges. The Makerere University's vision is to become a research driven university and serve as a recognized regional and reference center of first choice for advice on ethical challenges, research on international ethics regarding priority challenges and for development of bioethics research capacity.