Bioethics Leadership Program: PhD Induction Intake 2017
Dr Theresa Burgess
started her career with a BSc (Physiotherapy), followed by a BSc(Med) (Hons) and PhD in Exercise Science, all from the University of Cape Town. In 2011 she was awarded a NIH Fogarty Fellowship in Bioethics and with this support, successfully completed a MHSc (Bioethics) at the University of Toronto in 2012. She teaches research ethics, and neuromusculoskeletal and sports physiotherapy to undergraduate and postgraduate students, and is the programme convenor of the MSc in Exercise and Sports Physiotherapy. She also serves as the Deputy Chair of the Faculty of Health Sciences Human Research Ethics Committee, is a member of the Department of Health’s National Health Research Ethics Council, and serves on the Hospice Palliative Care Research Ethics Committee.
The purpose of this thesis is to determine the interplay between ethical and legal issues associated with female adolescent sexual and reproductive health research and ancillary care provision; and ethical issues that arise during the implementation of sexual and reproductive health research in adolescent females in South Africa.
Ethical and legal issues associated with female adolescent sexual and reproductive health research and ancillary care provision in South Africa
Mr Francis Masiye
is a graduate in Bioethics and Health Research Ethics from the University of Cape Town and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He has also attended post-graduate training in Clinical Trial Monitoring and Medical Anthropology. He is currently working as a Health Research Ethics Administrator at the Stellenbosch University and he is an honorary Lecturer in Bioethics at the University Of Malawi College Of Medicine. He is a member of the H3Africa Working Group on Ethics, Association of African Research Ethics Committee Administrators (AARECA) and the Johns Hopkins Fogarty African Bioethics Training Program Alumni Association. He also serves as a reviewer for the Malawi Medical Journal and BioMed Central (BMC) Journal of Medical Ethics. Francis has published several papers and book chapters in bioethics and health research ethics in the Springer Journal of Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics, BMC Medical Ethics Journal, the British Journal of Medical Ethics, Journal of Organizational Ethics and the Oxford University Press. His scholarly interests are in Health Research Ethics, Clinical Ethics, Public Health Ethics and Medical Anthropology.
Current research ethics regulations and guidelines in Malawi do not allow researchers to obtain broad consent from research participants and they do not allow future use of samples and data collected in biomedical research. There are also restrictions on shipment of biological samples from Malawi to overseas. The proposed study will attempt to provide empirical evidence on acceptable consent models and future use of biological samples with the goal of potentially influencing current policies on consent and future use of biological samples in Malawi and South Africa.
Stakeholder views on current policies on consent and future use of biological samples and data collected in biomedical studies in Malawi and South Africa
Prof Shenuka Singh
is a senior lecturer in the Discipline of Dentistry at UKZN. She has a PhD in the field of Dental Public Health. Prof Singh was a recipient of the NIH Fogarty Fellowship grant in the ARESA Programme (Stellenbosch University) in 2015 and obtained a PG Diploma in Health Research Ethics (Cum Laude). She is the appointed Research Ethics Chair for the Council for Science and Industry Research in South Africa (CSIR REC R&D: 2015-2018). Prof Singh is a member of the National Health Research Ethics Council in South Africa (2016-2019). She is actively involved in research and has published in both national and international journals. Apart from research, Prof Singh is actively involved in teaching and learning. She was appointed Acting College Dean for Teaching and Learning in the College of Health Sciences at UKZN until March 2017. She chaired an accreditation panel for a site visit in Lesotho, convened by the Council for Higher Education in Lesotho in 2014. She is currently involved in the recruitment of students from Seychelles into the undergraduate dental therapy training program at UKZN.
There is a need to ensure that training in biobanking-related issues is available, accessible, appropriate and contextualized to local settings, and is responsive to the challenges facing biobanking in South Africa and other LMICs.
