Journal of Public Health Advance Access originally published online on September 11, 2008
Journal of Public Health 2008 30(4):514-515; doi:10.1093/pubmed/fdn079
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Correspondence |
Ethics in translational public health
Carlo Petrini
Bioethics Unit
Office of the President
National Institute of Health
Via Giano della Bella 34
I-00162 Rome, Italy
E-mail: carlo.petrini{at}iss.it
Sirs,
According to the editorial in the September issue ‘Public health is de facto a translational industry that concerns itself by bringing about improvements to health of populations through the best science’.1 I agree with this analysis.
Nevertheless, the translational process is not merely a transposition of concepts from bench to bedside or from bedside into health decision making and public health,2 the translation of findings from health-related research into policy development is an action the nature of which is basically experimental.3 Therefore, I think that knowledge transfer in public health should meet ethical duties widely recognized for the research on human subjects.
A few remarks are probably useful to defend this thesis.
Often in public health, the boundaries between research and practice are very weak. This condition is particularly relevant in translational public health. Yet, research and practice are different in nature. From an ethical perspective, this difference requires caution: classifications such as ‘translational research’ are fascinating, but they should not serve as excuses for not meeting ethical duties which are up to each researcher. The same could be said for the so called ‘operational research’ [according to the Operational Research Society ‘operational research’ is the discipline of applying advanced analytical methods to help make better decisions: operational research has its own societies, journals, conferences, terminology and conventions (www.orsoc.org.uk)].
Therefore, when public health promotes not only routine practices, but also research, ethical requirements typical of research should be adopted. Among the requirements there are submission of protocols for ethical review, obtainment of informed consent and others. Most of all, the first duty of physicians and public health professionals is the interest and well being of the individual, ‘which shall prevail over the sole interest of society or science’.4
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- Leung GM, Gray S. Translational public health: rehearsing the evidence until the task is done. J Pub Health (2008) 30(3):217–8.[CrossRef]
- Woolf SH. The meaning of translational research and why it matters. JAMA (2008) 299(2):211–3.
[Free Full Text] - Nadler L. Quoted in: Birmingham K. What is translational research. Nat Med (2002) 8(7):647.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]
- Council of Europe. Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and the Dignity of the Human Being with regards to the application of Biology and Medicine: Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine (1996) http://conventions.coe.int/treaty/en/treaties/html/164.htm.
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