The Socrates Project: Research Ethics in the time of COVID19

An expert panel considers the myriad ethics challenges related to conducting research during a pandemic. The panel is moderated by Claudia Emerson, Director, Institute on Ethics & Policy for Innovation, and Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, McMaster University and includes: Matt Grellette, Research Associate, Institute on Ethics & Policy for Innovation – Dr. Grellette is a philosopher of law and bioethics. He is currently leading work in the ethics of emerging technologies. Jenniffer Maroa, Advisor Scientific Programs, The African Academy of Sciences, and Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Global Health, University of Washington – Dr. Maroa is a consultant with the African Academy of Sciences, Nairobi, Kenya. Her role involves providing high level oversight to Scientific programs focused on improving Research and Development on the African continent. Seema Shah, Founders’ Board Professor of Medical Ethics, Associate Professor in Pediatrics at Northwestern University Medical School, and Associate Director of the Bioethics Program at Lurie Children’s Hospital, Chicago – Professor Shah is a lawyer and bioethicist with expertise in the fields of pediatrics and global health research ethics. Her research is focused around the following question: When is it ethically and legally acceptable to expose some people to risk for the benefit of others? She has examined this in several different domains, including HIV/AIDS research, pediatric research, and the ethics of human challenge trials. Ross Upshur, Head, Division of Clinical Public Health, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, and Professor Dept of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto. Assistant Director of Lunenfeld Tanenbaum Research Institute, Sinai Health System – Dr. Upshur is a physician and researcher whose current research interests include managing complex chronic disease in aging adults, clinical measurement, the concept of evidence in health care, philosophy of medicine including medical epistemology and the integration of ethics and clinical reasoning, public health ethics, global health ethics, empirical approaches in bioethics, primary care research methods, time series applications in health services research, communicable disease and environmental epidemiology.