Seminar Series: Strengthening Ethical Practice at the Frontline of Global Health Research: Reflections on Opportunities and Challenges by Sassy Molyneux and Dorcas Kamuya
In this seminar Profs Sassy Molyneux and Dorcas Kamuya will share work they have collaborated on across three main inter-related themes from their institutional base at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust research programme in Kenya: understanding ethical dilemmas faced by frontline staff in conducting their research; introducing support processes for frontline staff; and strengthening institutional community engagement. Their presentation will include recent outputs, including an embedded video and an animation.
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Sassy Molyneux is Professor in Global Health based, Oxford, and a senior researcher at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Kenya, where she was based for 28 years. Sassy is an interdisciplinary researcher, with a background in human geography and behavioural studies. Her current main research interests span health policy and systems research (governance, finance, responsiveness to patient and public priorities and needs, and treatment-seeking), and empirical ethics, including the everyday ethics of frontline health provision and of conducting studies in resource poor settings. Cross-cutting areas of interest include:
- producing new thinking, evidence and recommendations around vulnerability and agency among research participants and communities, and researchers responsibilities in these contexts; and b)
- initiatives aimed at strengthening accountability processes in biomedical research and health delivery in sub-Saharan Africa.
Sassy provides strategic support around ethical issues that emerge during research across the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust programme in Kenya, and contributes to social science, health systems research, community engagement and research ethics training at the centre and internationally.
Dorcas Kamuya is a Wellcome Trust Society & Ethics fellow and current Head of the Health Systems and Research Ethics (HSRE) Department at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme. Her fellowship research is an empirical ethics examining if and how communities could be engaged on complex ethical topics, with bio-banking as a case study. As a social science researcher in LMIC, her research interests span several interrelated areas: ethical and social-cultural issues around emerging technologies (biobanking, machine learning); the value of community and public engagement in health research; ethical dilemmas for frontline research workers; and responsibility of researchers and research institutions conducting research in resource-limited contexts. Dr. Kamuya is primarily based at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme (KWTRP) in Kilifi, Kenya; is a member of several collaborative initiatives including Global Health Bioethics Network, Africa Ethics Working Group (AEWG) on Neuro-disability studies; International Association of Bioethics (IAB), among others.