CBEC-SIUT MAKES

CBEC’s goals include building and enhancing national bioethics capacity in clinical and research ethics within institutions and healthcare professionals of the four provinces in Pakistan. The Centre has been able to do so in Sindh, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, through invited workshops and enrollment of their professionals in its bioethics programs.  However, CBEC’s reach into Balochistan, the country’s most disadvantaged province, had been minimal due to a paucity of medical fraternity contacts despite faculty efforts.

This changed in 2023 when Dr. Rukhsana Majeed, Head of the Department of Community Medicine, Quetta Institute of Medical Sciences (QIMS), participated in a CBEC workshop to review the WHO Tool for Benchmarking Ethics Oversight of Health-Related Research. The following year, at Dr. Majeed’s invitation, CBEC faculty ran a very well-attended two-day bioethics workshop in QIMS. Participants included enthusiastic professionals from other institutions in Quetta, requesting that CBEC undertake the same for them.

Building on the momentum from the QIMS workshop, CBEC faculty conducted a second workshop at the Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Institute of Cardiology, Quetta (SMBZAN ICQ). Brig. Dr. Omer Iftikhar Kahloon, the institute’s Commandant, extended the invitation and demonstrated his strong support through active participation throughout the event. Dr. Hania Hashmi, Research Officer at the institute, played a key role in organizing the workshop. CBEC faculty, Dr. Farhat Moazam, Dr. Aamir Jafarey, and Mr. Farid bin Masood, were involved in teaching.

Day one focused on Clinical Ethics, beginning with a comparative exploration of traditional medical ethics versus contemporary bioethics. This was followed by sessions on informed consent, privacy, and confidentiality. Two specially developed CBEC videos effectively helped participants contextualize the nuances of consent and privacy in clinical encounters relevant to local Pakistani settings. Day two centered on Research Ethics, starting with an activity to differentiate between clinical practice and research, highlighting the distinct ethical implications. A session on the basics of research ethics introduced common ethical challenges and the importance of ethical oversight mechanisms. This led to an introduction to the WHO Benchmarking Tool for Ethics Oversight. The day concluded with a dynamic research case discussion, where participants divided into two groups deliberated on ethical issues, as members of a simulated ethics review committee.

The workshop brought together a diverse group of participants, with balanced representation across specialties and hierarchy, including clinical, nursing, diagnostic, and administrative departments. Participants actively engaged in all discussions, sharing experiences and perspectives unique to their professional contexts. Brig. Dr. Kahloon sat through all the sessions of the workshop, displaying the institute’s commitment.

Besides the two workshops, CBEC has had a student from Balochistan who completed the Clinical Ethics Certificate Course and another who is currently enrolled in the PGD program.