University of Toronto
Joint Centre for Bioethics |
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TorontoToronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, OntarioOntario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, CanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
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| Affiliated University |
University of Toronto The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
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www.utoronto.ca/jcb |
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The
University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics, or
JCB, is an academic research centre located on the downtown campus of the
University of TorontoThe University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
in
TorontoToronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
,
OntarioOntario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
,
CanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. The Joint Centre for Bioethics is a partnership between the University and 15 affiliated health care organizations in the
Greater Toronto AreaThe Greater Toronto Area is the largest metropolitan area in Canada, with a 2006 census population of 5.5 million. The Greater Toronto Area is usually defined as the central city of Toronto, along with four regional municipalities surrounding it: Durham, Halton, Peel, and York...
. The centre studies ethical, health-related topics through
researchResearch can be defined as the scientific search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories, usually using a scientific method...
, educational and clinical activities that aim to improve the standard of health care at national and international levels. The centre consists of a network of over 180 multidisciplinary professionals, approximately 30 of whom work full-time in bioethics, representing the largest multi-disciplinary group of in-hospital bioethicists in Canada.
In 2002, the centre was designated the first
World Health OrganizationThe World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health. Established on 7 April 1948, with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the agency inherited the mandate and resources of its predecessor, the Health...
collaborating centre in bioethics in 15 years.
Originally founded as the
Centre for Bioethics in the 1980s by Dr.
Frederick LowyFrederick Hans Lowy, OC is a Canadian medical educator and President and Vice-Chancellor of Concordia University.-Life and career:...
, then Dean of the
Faculty of MedicineThe Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto is the medical school of the University of Toronto. The faculty is based in the Discovery District of Downtown Toronto along with most of its teaching hospitals and research institutes. Founded in 1843, it is one of Canada's oldest institutions of...
at the University of Toronto, who also served as the centre's first Director. In partnership with four Toronto hospitals, the
Joint Centre for Bioethics was created in 1995, headed by Dr.
Peter A. SingerPeter Alexander Singer, OC, MD, MPH, FRSC, is Chief Executive Officer of Grand Challenges Canada and Director at the McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health, University Health Network and University of Toronto...
, who served as Director until 2006. Currently, the Director of the centre is Dr.
Ross Upshur.
Mission, Vision, Values and Goals
The mission of the Joint Centre for Bioethics is to provide leadership in bioethics research, education and clinical activities.
The centre's vision is to be a model of interdisciplinary collaboration in order to create new knowledge and improve practices with respect to bioethics.
The centre's values include academic and clinical excellence, intellectual freedomIntellectual freedom is the right to freedom of thought and of expression of thought. As defined by Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it is a human right. Article 19 states:...
, integrityIntegrity is a concept of consistency of actions, values, methods, measures, principles, expectations, and outcomes. In ethics, integrity is regarded as the honesty and truthfulness or accuracy of one's actions...
, respectRespect denotes both a positive feeling of esteem for a person or other entity , and also specific actions and conduct representative of that esteem. Respect can be a specific feeling of regard for the actual qualities of the one respected...
, inclusiveness and justiceJustice is a concept of moral rightness based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law, religion, or equity, along with the punishment of the breach of said ethics; justice is the act of being just and/or fair.-Concept of justice:...
. However, the centre itself does not advocate positions on specific issues, although its individual members may do so.
The goals of the centre are:
- To foster interdisciplinary research and scholarship, link education to research, and disseminate research findings to improve policies and practices.
- To support undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate educational programs in bioethics.
- To support clinical ethics activities including continuing education for health care providers, ethics committees, ethics consultation, and projects to address specific issues arising in partner institutions.
- To foster collegial discussion of bioethics issues throughout the network of participating institutions, and to serve as a resource for the media, policymakers and community groups.
Research
The Joint Centre for Bioethics aims to put "theory into practice" through interdisciplinary research. The value of research projects is to address ethical issues encountered in the partner hospitals, and to then disseminate research findings to improve policies and practices.
To date, the members of the centre have published more than 500 articles and obtained more than $20 million in research grants.
Clinical Ethics
Good practices in clinical ethics have not yet been systematically studied, evaluated, or shared. Clinical ethics practice has been described as a “black box” because of the lack of evidence for effectiveness and for good practice in the discipline. The JCB’s Clinical Ethics Group conceived PEECE - an innovative study designed to address the pressing need to identify good practices for clinical ethics. PEECE involved a series of nine case studies at JCB partner hospitals across Toronto. The specific objective was to examine perceptions of effectiveness and good practice in clinical ethics through the eyes of the bioethicists, clinical staff, hospital senior management, and patients and families. By including the views of all key stakeholders, the project aimed to provide a solid basis for further research and development in clinical ethics.
Consent, Trust & Error
Understanding a patient's level of capacity (competency) is necessary for health care workers in determining whether to follow the patient's treatment wishes or those of a substitute decision-maker. The Aid for Capacity Evaluation was created by JCB members as a method of overcoming the difficulty of measuring capacity in practice.
Other JCB members study ethical issues related to surgical care, teaching and research. Themes include the influence of trust on the surgeon-patient relationship, the ethical obligations of surgical teams, innovations in surgical care-such as artificial lungs and hearts, and the management of conflicts of interest in surgical research.
Error is not uncommon in health care and can have adverse outcomes. The response to error can be in the terms of disclosure and reporting, which leads to prevention, and improve future patient safety. JCB members developed a policy for disclosure and reporting of error to aid institutions in making their response.
Disability, Rehabilitation & Continuing Care
Disability, rehabilitation and continuing care ethics research involves critical reflection on ethical issues arising in the special areas of physical medicine, rehabilitation, and complex continuing care. Ethics research in this area is a relatively new and rather underdeveloped sub-field of bioethics, particularly in Canada. At the JCB, current projects in this area include: defining the ethical issues present in rehab and continuing care, the right to refuse life-sustaining treatment, issues of capacity and consent in the rehab setting, relationships between rehab patients and workers, understanding of social aspects of disabilities in parents and their children, and exercise among people with HIV/AIDS.
End-of-Life
JCB contributions to end-of-life care research include: developing a new, patient-centered model of quality end-of-life care, developing a new model of advance care planning, including living wills, and developing a new model for addressing the issues of euthanasia and assisted suicide. The Ian Anderson Continuing Education Program in End-of-Life Care is a joint initiative of the JCB, University of Toronto, and Temmy Latner Centre for Palliative Care, to educate physicians on issues surrounding death and dying. The goal of this program is to create a national network of health care providers trained to care for terminally ill patients.
Ethics Education
Bioethics education is a required component for accreditation in Canada, and is considered an equally important part of the medical curriculum as clinical training. A recent survey found that residents felt that the issues being taught did not adequately reflect ethical issues in clinical practice http://www.utmj.org/issues/84.1/Ethics.pdf. Research being conducted at the JCB identifies strengths and challenges in bioethics education and assesses delivery methods. The goal is to reconcile the teaching curriculum with needs of residents to ensure graduate physicians acquire the necessary skills to deal with ethical issues.
Genomics & Global Health
The 2002 WHO report on Genomics and World Health states global health inequity as one of the most urgent ethical challenges facing the world today. The Joint Centre for Bioethics is involved in projects aimed at preventing the formation of a “genomic divide”, in terms of concern over the health priorities, between the developed and developing world. Among other projects the centre is involved with include: convergence genomics, ethical, environmental, legal and social research across health, nutrition, agriculture and environmental applications of genomics and biotechnology.
Organizational Ethics
Organizational ethics at the JCB has been about the exploration of issues health care organizations face, the strategies used to address the issues, and the perceived effectiveness of these strategies. A study of Toronto health care leaders revealed eight key issues facing their organizations: resource allocation, business development, charitable fundraising, disagreement over treatment decisions, access to care for the uninsured, disclosure of risk, workplace ethics, and conflict of interest. Publications will focus on addressing the ethical obligations of health care managers and implementable solutions.
Priority Setting
Priority setting, or resource allocation, is an important health policy issue that occurs at all levels of health care. The Joint Centre for Bioethics shares its research platform on priority setting with the Canadian Priority Setting Research Network, which aims to improve the politics and processes of health care priority setting and enhance the research capacity for priority setting. The centre takes an innovative approach to priority setting research in that the focus is placed on enhancing the priority setting processes, capturing and sharing actual priority setting experiences, and taking a bottom-up approach to improve priority setting.
Public Health Ethics
At the JCB, public health ethics is a key research area in light of the SARS incident of 2003. SARS led the JCB to investigate ethical implications within the health care system and shed light on ethical issues in dealing with infectious disease. Expanding on the ethics of infectious disease, pandemic influenza planning is an important topic under research at the JCB. Stand on Guard for Thee is a report published by the Influenza Pandemic Working Group recommending a 15-point ethical guide for pandemic planning that illustrates the need for a basis on commonly held ethical values and advance support of the public. Issues of duty to care, restrictive measures (i.e. quarantineQuarantine is compulsory isolation, typically to contain the spread of something considered dangerous, often but not always disease. The word comes from the Italian quarantena, meaning forty-day period....
), priority setting, and global governance continue to be topic studied by JCB members. One of the centre’s aims is to engage the public in the debate about ethical pandemic planning. The CIHR-funded CanPREP (Canadian Program of Research on Ethics in a Pandemic) project has proposed to address the issue of public engagement among one of its three objectives, the other two being: knowledge generation and capacity building.
Degree Programs
The University of Toronto (through the Joint Centre for Bioethics) offers undergraduate, graduate, postgraduate, professional and continuing education in bioethics. The centre itself coordinates all programs it offers.
Courses include a wide range of disciplines incorporating many aspects of bioethics. Graduate-level degrees offered level include a Master of Health ScienceThe Master of Health Science degree is a specialized master’s degree. Depending on the department and specific area of study, the MHS degree provides opportunities for advanced study and research or prepares individuals to begin or advance their careers as public health professionals...
(MHSc) in Bioethics and masters and doctoral stream Collaborative Program in Bioethics (CPB).
Continuing Education Programs
The Ian Anderson Continuing Education Program in End-of-Life Care was a joint project of the University of Toronto (Joint Centre for Bioethics and Continuing Education, Faculty of Medicine) and Mount Sinai HospitalMount Sinai Hospital is a hospital in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Although it is physically linked by bridges and tunnels to two University Health Network hospitals , Mount Sinai is an independently operated facility...
(Temmy Latner Centre for Palliative CarePalliative care is a specialized area of healthcare that focuses on relieving and preventing the suffering of patients...
) that aimed to train 10,000 physicians in end-of-lifeIn medicine, end-of-life care refers to medical care not only of patients in the final hours or days of their lives, but more broadly, medical care of all those with a terminal illness or terminal condition that has become advanced, progressive and incurable....
care. Although the program is no longer available, the training materials remain accessible online.
Seminars
The Joint Centre for Bioethics holds weekly public seminars by members of the local, national and international bioethics community on a wide variety of bioethics topics.
Governance
The University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics is governed by an Advisory Council consisting of representatives from all its member organizations, both from the University of TorontoThe University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
and partner health care organizations.
University of TorontoThe University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
is be represented by the Vice-Provost, Relations with Health Care Institutions chairs the Advisory Council, as well as the Deans of Arts and ScienceThe Faculty of Arts and Science at the University of Toronto is one of Canada's largest and most prestigious arts and science teaching and research institutions. With almost 22,000 undergraduate and 3,000 graduate students, Arts and Science represents over half the student population on the...
, LawEstablished in 1887, the University of Toronto Faculty of Law is one of the oldest professional faculties at the University of Toronto. The Faculty of Law is particularly renowned in the areas of corporate law, international law, law and economics, and legal theory.The law school has been...
, Nursing, and the School of Graduate Studies or their designates. Partner organizations are represented by the CEO of each organization or a designate from the executive team of that organization. The Advisory Council's mandate is to provide advice to the Executive Committee and the Director of the centre.
Membership
Members ordinarily hold an appointment at the University of Toronto or one of the participating healthcare organizations. Members assist the centre to fulfill its mission through participation in research, education or clinical ethics activities.
Appointments are reviewed annually by an advisory committee. The criteria for membership include participation in the centre's research activities, bioethics education, or clinical ethics committees or other clinical ethics activities or are "opinion leaders" as identified by the hospital bioethicist. Potential members are offered membership by the Director on the advice of the leader of the centre's relevant research area. Members and Associate Members of the Centre for Bioethics have automatically been considered members. Centre membership normally will cease when individuals leave their University of Toronto or hospital appointment.
Members are expected to state their affiliation with the centre on bioethics-related publications and presentations, and to provide on request information about their bioethics-related activities for inclusion in the centre's reports.
The benefits of membership include priority notification of the centre's seminars, lectures and workshops, opportunities to join in the centre's research activities, and opportunities to meet colleagues in member institutions who share interests in bioethics.
Partnerships
- Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care
Baycrest is a research and education hospital on Bathurst Street in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.It was founded in 1918 as the Toronto Jewish Old Folks Home in a semi-detached house on Cecil Street in downtown Toronto. In 1968, the new Jewish Home for the Aged opened at Baycrest's present location in...
- Bloorview Kids Rehab
Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital is Canada's largest children's rehabilitation hospital. It is located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada...
- Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health is a consortium of mental health clinics at several sites in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its name in French is Centre de toxicomanie et de santé mentale...
- Centre for Clinical Ethics (a shared service of Providence Healthcare
Providence Healthcare is a health care facility in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, specializing in rehabilitation for patients who have experienced strokes, orthopaedic surgery, or lower limb amputation, or who require specialized geriatric rehabilitation, assessment and treatment. It also provides...
, St. Joseph's Health Centre, and St. Michael's Hospital)
- The Hospital for Sick Children
- Humber River Regional Hospital
- Mount Sinai Hospital
Mount Sinai Hospital is a hospital in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Although it is physically linked by bridges and tunnels to two University Health Network hospitals , Mount Sinai is an independently operated facility...
- North York General Hospital
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Ontario Genomics Institute The Ontario Genomics Institute is a not-for-profit organization that manages cutting-edge genomics research projects and platforms. OGI also helps scientists find paths to the marketplace for their discoveries and the products to which they lead, and it works through diverse outreach and...
Sunnybrook Health Sciences CentreSunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, abbreviated SHSC and known simply as Sunnybrook, is an academic health sciences centre located in Toronto, Ontario....
Toronto Community Care Access Centre
Toronto East General Hospital
Toronto Rehabilitation InstituteToronto Rehabilitation Institute or Toronto Rehab is the largest rehabilitation hospital in Canada. Toronto Rehab has six sites located in Toronto, Ontario....
Trillium Health CentreThe Trillium Health Centre Bus Terminal is located in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. It is situated on the northern end of the Mississauga site..The bus terminal only contains a bus shelter.-Bus routes:...
University Health NetworkUniversity Health Network is a medical centre that comprises three teaching hospitals affiliated with the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine....
(UHN)
- Princess Margaret Hospital
Princess Margaret Hospital may refer to:* Princess Margaret Hospital in Canada specializing in Oncology* Princess Margaret Hospital * Princess Margaret Hospital in New Zealand...
- Toronto General Hospital
The Toronto General Hospital , is a part of the University Health Network, and a major teaching hospital in downtown Toronto, Ontario. It is located in the Discovery District, directly north of the Hospital for Sick Children, across Gerrard Street West, and east of Princess Margaret Hospital and...
- Toronto Western Hospital
-External links:****...
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Selected publications
More of the centre's publications are available on PubMedPubMed is a free database accessing primarily the MEDLINE database of references and abstracts on life sciences and biomedical topics. The United States National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health maintains the database as part of the Entrez information retrieval system...
, click here.
External links
The source of this article is
wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the
GFDL.
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