scholarly journals Scraping the Web for Public Health Gains: Ethical Considerations from a ‘Big Data’ Research Project on HIV and Incarceration

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart Rennie ◽  
Mara Buchbinder ◽  
Eric Juengst ◽  
Lauren Brinkley-Rubinstein ◽  
Colleen Blue ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Health Planning ◽  
Public Health Practice ◽  
Public Health Research ◽  
Health Practice ◽  
Ethical Considerations ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Hiv Surveillance ◽  
The Web

Abstract Web scraping involves using computer programs for automated extraction and organization of data from the Web for the purpose of further data analysis and use. It is frequently used by commercial companies, but also has become a valuable tool in epidemiological research and public health planning. In this paper, we explore ethical issues in a project that “scrapes” public websites of U.S. county jails as part of an effort to develop a comprehensive database (including individual-level jail incarcerations, court records and confidential HIV records) to enhance HIV surveillance and improve continuity of care for incarcerated populations. We argue that the well-known framework of Emanuel et al. (2000) provides only partial ethical guidance for the activities we describe, which lie at a complex intersection of public health research and public health practice. We suggest some ethical considerations from the ethics of public health practice to help fill gaps in this relatively unexplored area.

Ethics of Population-Based Research

2007 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 295-299 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holly A. Taylor ◽  
Summer Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Research ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Public Health Practice ◽  
Public Health Research ◽  
Population Based ◽  
Health Practice ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Definition Of

Multiple scholars and institutions have asked what distinguishes public health research from public health practice. Most often, they ask in order to have a clear definition of what one does in various public health settings to assess oversight and/or regulation of human subjects research. More importantly, however, whether something is considered public health research or public health practice has real ethical implications in terms of the general moral considerations at stake and the obligations of public health researchers/practitioners to the populations they serve or study.Numerous examples in recent history of research ethics, including the Kennedy Krieger Lead Abatement Study and EPA’s Children’s Environmental Exposure Research Study (CHEERS), suggest that an exploration of the ethics of public health, or more generally population-based research, may be warranted. Although we acknowledge that there are important ethical issues to consider in the implementation of public health practice, we leave that discussion for other authors.

scholarly journals The Canadian Bikeway Comfort and Safety (Can-BICS) Classification System: A common naming convention for cycling infrastructure

2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (9) ◽  
pp. 288-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meghan Winters ◽  
Moreno Zanotto ◽  
Gregory Butler
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Classification System ◽  
Classification Scheme ◽  
Health Planning ◽  
Public Health Practice ◽  
Safety Performance ◽  
Transportation Engineering ◽  
Health Practice ◽  
Naming Convention ◽  
System A

There is no standard naming convention for cycling infrastructure across cities. Our aim was to develop a common nomenclature for cycling infrastructure in Canada, relevant to the context of public health practice. We drew on transportation engineering design guides and public health guidance to develop a bicycle facility classification system: the Canadian Bikeway Comfort and Safety (Can-BICS) classification system, a three-tiered classification scheme that groups five bicycle facilities based on safety performance and user comfort. Adopting consistent nomenclature as per the Can-BICS system will support regional and national surveillance efforts in public health, planning and sustainability.

Ethical principles and ethical issues in public health

2021 ◽  
pp. 261-272
Author(s):  
Nancy Kass ◽  
Amy Paul ◽  
Andrew Siegel
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Medical Ethics ◽  
Health Research ◽  
Public Health Practice ◽  
Public Health Research ◽  
Public Health Ethics ◽  
Health Practice ◽  
Health Ethics ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
Social Justice Theory

Public health ethics considers moral dimensions of public health practice and research. While medical ethics dates back hundreds of years, and bioethics writings emerged in the 1960s and 1970s, ‘public health ethics’, articulated as such, did not appear significantly in the literature for several more decades. There has been great interest recently in defining public health ethics, examining how it resembles or differs from medical ethics or bioethics, outlining frameworks and codes, and providing conceptual and practical guidance on how ethics can inform public health practice and research. This chapter describes the emergence of public health ethics; work in bioethics with relevance for public health; the relevance of social justice theory in addressing public health problems; and discusses literature on ethics and public health research, including whether public health research ethics might differ from ethical guidance for other human research. The chapter concludes with an overview of ethics issues related to genetic research and emerging technologies.

Tuberculosis surveillance and its discontents: the ethical paradox

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (5) ◽  
pp. 9-14
Author(s):  
R. Bayer ◽  
A. L. Fairchild ◽  
M. Zignol ◽  
K. G. Castro
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Public Health Surveillance ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Public Health Practice ◽  
Health Surveillance ◽  
World Health ◽  
Ethical Review ◽  
Health Practice ◽  
Health Organization

In June 2017, the World Health Organization issued the Guidelines on Ethical Issues in Public Health Surveillance. Using the frame of public health ethics, the guidance declared that countries have an affirmative duty to undertake surveillance and that the global community had an obligation to support those countries whose resources limited their capacity. The centrality of TB surveillance has long been recognized as a matter of public health practice and ethics. Nevertheless, contemporary global realities make clear that TB surveillance falls far short of the goal of uniform notification. It is this reality that necessitated the paradoxical turn to research studies that require informed consent and human subjects' ethical review, the very burdens that mandated notification were designed to overcome.

scholarly journals Ethical Issues in Public Health Practice in Michigan

2009 ◽  
Vol 99 (2) ◽  
pp. 369-374 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy M. Baum ◽  
Sarah E. Gollust ◽  
Susan D. Goold ◽  
Peter D. Jacobson
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Public Health Practice ◽  
Health Practice

The Role of State Law in Protecting Human Subjects of Public Health Research and Practice

2003 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 654-662 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Burris ◽  
Lance Gable ◽  
Lesley Stone ◽  
Zita Lazzarini
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Public Health Practice ◽  
Public Health Research ◽  
Health Practice ◽  
Research Subjects ◽  
Common Rule ◽  
Public Health Agencies ◽  
Specimen Collection ◽  
The Common

“Public health practice” consists of activities and Programs managed by public health agencies to promote health and prevent disease, injury, and disability. Some of these activities might be deemed to fit within the broad definition of “research” under federal regulations, known as the Common Rule, designed to protect human research subjects. The Common Rule defines research as “a systeniatic investigation, including research development, testing and evaluation, designed to develop or contribute to generalizable knowledge.” Public health activities that might under some circumstances be considered research include disease reporting, review of medical records, surveys, interviews, focus groups, specimen collection (blood, urine, etc.), and laboratory testing (both identifiable and anonymous).There are questions about the extent to which the Common Rule applies or was intended to apply to public health practice: and it has been suggested in any case that Common Rule regulation of public health practice may not be socially optimal for both practical and principled reasons.

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