I. Introduction and Objectives

This is the first in a series of advanced training seminars hosted by the Social Science Research and Training on HIV/AIDS (STAR) partnership, a five-year collaboration between Hanoi Medical University and Columbia University funded by the US National Institute of Health.

The duty to respect autonomy, protect the vulnerable, and secure justice is a central part of research and clinical ethics. But what happens when the concern shifts from the individual to the population level? What should an ethics of public health look like and how should it guide public health policy? While researchers and practitioners have been discussing the ethics of medicine and research for decades, the field of public health ethics is relatively new. Thus this advanced training seminar will open participants to an exciting new domain of inquiry. Through the use of case examples – mandatory motorcycle laws; possible limits on tobacco; harm reduction for drug use; and the imposition of fees for medical services – this one-week advanced seminar will provide a forum for the examination of the conflicting values that inform public health decision making. At the end of the seminar, participants will be better positioned to identify the often hidden value assumptions in public health policy and will be able to discuss how to deal with situations in which values appear to be in conflict.

III. Time, location and content

During the period from October 20 to October 24, 2008, participants will meet over five two-hour sessions, preferably from 9:30 to 11:30 every morning or at an appropriate time for most selected participants. Five sessions will focus on:

· Introduction: Public Responsibility, Individual Rights

· The Ethics of Health Promotion: Motorcycle Helmets and Cigarettes

· The Ethics of Public Health Promotion: Harm Reduction

· The Ethics of Prevention: Controlling Infectious Disease: Immunization, Quarantine and AIDS

· The Ethics of Prevention: Justice and the Health Care System

The seminar will be held at the main campus of Hanoi Medical University. Required readings are in English and a high level of English language capacity is required. In addition to in-class sessions, selected participants are encouraged to schedule individual meetings with the seminar leader to discuss topics of mutual interest.

III. Seminar Leader

Ronald Bayer, Ph.D., is Professor and Co-Director at the Center for the History and Ethics of Public Health at the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University. His research has focused on AIDS, tuberculosis, illicit drugs, and tobacco. He is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and has served on its committees dealing with the social impact of AIDS, tuberculosis elimination, vaccine safety, smallpox vaccination and the Ryan White Care Act.

His articles on ethics and history of public health issues have appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the American Medical Association, The Lancet, the American Journal of Public Health, and The Milbank Quarterly.

Among his numerous books are Private Acts, Social Consequences: AIDS and the Politics of Public Health (1989), Confronting Drug Policy: Illicit Drugs in a Free Society (1993), edited with Gerald Oppenheimer; Mortal Secrets: Truth and Lies in the Age of AIDS (2003), written with Robert Klitzman; Unfiltered: Conflicts over Tobacco Policy and Public Health (2004), edited with Eric Feldman; Searching Eyes: Privacy, the State and Disease Surveillance in America (2007), written with Amy Fairchild and James Colgrove, and Shattered Dreams? An Oral History of the South Africa AIDS Epidemic (2007) written with Gerald Oppenheimer.

IV. Potential participants

Senior Vietnamese and international researchers who are working in academic and research institutions in the field of social sciences (for example, ethnology, anthropology, sociology, cultural studies, economics, history and political sciences), medicine, public health and related fields in Vietnam.

Senior Vietnamese and international program managers and researchers for national and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) who are working in various areas of public health in Vietnam.

The seminar organizer aims to select a maximum of 18 participants (about two third are Vietnamese) for the seminar.

V. Application process

Interested individuals should contact the seminar organizer by no later than 5:00 pm of August 29, 2008. Funding is available to support participation of Vietnamese coming from outside of Hanoi. Selected participants will receive confirmation and required readings no later than the second week of September, 2008.

Lê Minh Giang

Center for Research and Training on HIV/AIDS - Hanoi Medical University

Telephone: (84-4) 5745619

Mobile: (84) 16 92 111 238 Emails: ttaids_yhn@yahoo.com