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Abstract:
It is only recently that public involvement has become a key part of healthcare practice and some form of public involvement is almost universally adopted throughout health research systems internationally. However, although it is widely recognised that public involvement is important by a wide range of different groups, from activists and patient groups, professional organisations to government bodies, within this broad endorsement there are a host of unresolved issues. What is the overriding justification and value base of public involvement? How do we adjudicate between different justifications and rationales for public involvement? What is the central function of the public contributor and how do or should they contribute to decision-making? This paper will consider the ethical and legal dimensions of these issues and how these, possibly, competing rationales for public involvement might affect the assessment of these activities.

Speaker:
Dr Lucy Frith
Reader in Bioethics and Social Science, Department of Health Services Research, The University of Liverpool
Visiting Professor, Faculty of Law, The University of Hong Kong

Dr Lucy Frith is Reader in Bioethics and Social Science at the University of Liverpool, UK. Her research focuses on the social and ethical aspects of improving healthcare delivery, policy and regulation, with a particular interest in empirical ethics and the inter-section between ethics and social science. She has published widely on a range of issues in bioethics and carried out research on pregnancy and childbirth; research ethics (clinical trials and public involvement and cross-cultural issues in consent); the organisation and funding of health care provision (priority setting and use of resources); and has a long-standing interest in the social and ethical aspects of reproductive technologies.

Continuing Medical Education (CME) Accreditation:
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