As One Health is embraced by researchers and institutions, relatively little attention has been paid to the ethical and regulatory aspects of this holistic scientific approach. As with any area of research involving human or animal subjects, ethical issues require careful consideration and reflection. One Health Ethics and Regulatory Procedures (OHEARP) will study the ethical challenges faced by One Health researchers and by reviewers who serve on ethics committees and regulatory bodies. The project aims to identify the ethical issues encountered, the challenges of reviewing One Health research ethics proposals and the opportunities for further development around One Health ethics.
We invite researchers, ethics committee members and regulators involved with One Health research in Africa to complete our survey on ethics and One Health research. The anonymous survey will take about 15-20 minutes to complete. Take the survey.
The OHEARP project is funded by the National Institutes of Health, Fogarty International Center under the parent award, One Health Eastern Africa Research Training (OHEART) program. OHEARP plans to engage OHEART fellows and trainees at all phases to enhance their ethical decision-making skills, explore the ethical dimensions of their own projects and enhance their skills in applying for research ethics approvals. Key outputs of the project will be policy recommendations, training materials and academic publications. Further details can be found in the editorial published in the Ethiopian Journal of Health Development by OHEARP’s researchers.
The OHEARP project has developed a survey on One Health research ethics, which will be distributed to researchers, ethics committee members and regulatory body members working in Africa. Following analysis of the survey results, qualitative interviews will be carried out with stakeholders from these three groups to explore the ethical issues in further detail. The results will be incorporated into research ethics training materials and recommendations for policies on the ethical and regulatory dimensions of One Health research.
The project is led by Dónal O’Mathúna, PhD, Ohio State University College of Nursing and Center for Bioethics, Andreia Arruda, DVM, PhD, Ohio State College of Veterinary Medicine and Getnet Yimer, PhD, MD, Ohio State Global One Health LLC.
For updates, follow @OHEARP2021 on Twitter.