SARS and the threat of pandemic avian influenza have made it clear to the public and to the Government in China that public health must be a high priority. This in turn requires a commitment to research, much of it with human subjects. While a system of ethical review for clinical trials and other biomedical research has emerged in China, particularly during the past five years, a comparable effort to ensure the fairness and safety of research in public health has just begun to develop only recently. With the support of CDC of China, Medical Ethics Program will work with School of Public Health and other programs of Peking University Health Science Center (PUHSC), to develop a graduate level of curriculum for Public Health Research Ethics and try a pilot training test, and in the end to publish a series of practicable textbooks of public health research ethics and reach a sustainable way for such education. The long-term objectives will be: To protect the large populations studied in public health research to increase scientists' awareness of public health research ethics issues. To build capacity for ethical review of research in public health The specific aims are: To develop a graduate level curriculum of public health research ethics To develop public health research ethics training materials To provide a course of """"""""public health research ethics"""""""" for all undergraduate students and graduate students in medical schools A summer school short course, for public health researchers, IRB members, government officers and potential public health research ethics teachers China has a vast territory with an unbalanced economic development. Because of the interweaving of the first and the second tasks of health reform, it has been regarded by WHO as a country with dual burden of disease. The situation has made it more difficult to control disease and made it more complicated to do research in public health and to manage it, which requires more robust public health research ethics. This project will be the first to support public health research ethics in China, and will produce practical training materials, with Chinese public health research ethics cases, to provide training for public health students, medical students, public health researchers, IRB members, government officials and university teachers. ? ? ?
