Stuart Rennie | UNC Center for Bioethics

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What Could “Fair Allocation” during the Covid‐19 Crisis Possibly Mean in Sub‐Saharan Africa?

The Covid‐19 pandemic has sparked rapid and voluminous production of bioethics commentary in popular media and academic publications. Many of the discussions are new twists on an old theme: how to fairly allocate scarce medical resources, such as ventilators and intensive care unit beds. In this essay, we do not...

Parallel but connected: Nuances of conducting behavioral and social science research alongside ethically challenging HIV remission trials

Collaborations between clinical investigators and behavioral and social science researchers (BSSR) produce many benefits, but also may generate challenges and complexities. Ongoing relationships between teams may affect the research carried out by the BSSR team and the way they interpret their findings. Here we describe our experiences conducting the HIV...

Suicide Behaviour Among Adolescents in a High HIV Prevalence Region of Western Kenya: A Mixed-Methods Study

The study purpose was to determine the prevalence and determinants of suicidal thoughts and behaviours in a rural community sample of 15–19-year-old Kenyan adolescents in a region with high HIV burden. Data were from an observational study examining ethical issues in adolescent HIV research (N=4084). Participants reporting suicidal ideation were...

Impact of Implementing an Online Interactive Educational Tool for Future HIV “Cure” Research in an HIV Clinic Waiting Room in Cape Town, South Africa

Access to antiretroviral treatment (ART) in South Africa is suboptimal and erratic. For those on treatment, compliance remains a significant challenge. Interruptions to ART have negative implications for the individual and the epidemic. ART is therefore not a sustainable solution and there is an urgent need for a cure. As...

“‘Informed and Empowered’: A Mixed Method Study of Crowdsourcing Contests to Promote Uptake of HIV Self-Testing Kits among African Americans.

Objective: HIV self-testing (HIVST) kits are a viable alternative to testing in clinical settings, but research on the effective ways of promoting uptake of HI VST kits has been lacking. The present study examines crowdsourcing contests as community engagement to promote uptake of HI VST kits among African Americans in...

Expert Stakeholders’ Perspectives on a Data-to-Care Strategy for Improving Care Among HIV-Positive Individuals Incarcerated in Jails

Data-to-Care (D2C) uses surveillance data (e.g., laboratory, Medicaid billing) to identify out-of-care HIV-positive persons to re-link them to care. Most US states are implementing D2C, yet few studies have explored stakeholders’ perspectives on D2C, and none have addressed these perspectives in the context of D2C in jail. This article reports...

Expanding Community Engagement in HIV Clinical Trials a Pilot Study Using Crowdsourcing

Abstract Objective: To assess the potential for crowdsourcing to complement and extend community advisory board (CAB) feedback on HIV clinical trials. Crowdsourcing involves community members attempting to solve a problem and then sharing solutions. Methods: CAB and crowdsourced approaches were implemented in the context of a phase 1 HIV antibody...

“Meet People Where They Are”: A Qualitative Study of Community Barriers and Facilitators to HIV Testing and HIV Self-Testing Among African Americans in Urban and Rural Areas in North Carolina

HIV testing programs in the United States aim to reach ethnic minority populations who experience high incidence of HIV, yet 40% of African Americans have never been tested for HIV. The objective of this study is to identify community-based strategies to increase testing among African Americans in both urban and...

Scraping the Web for Public Health Gains: Ethical Considerations from a ‘Big Data’ Research Project on HIV and Incarceration

Web scraping involves using computer programs for automated extraction and organization of data from the Web for the purpose of further data analysis and use. It is frequently used by commercial companies, but also has become a valuable tool in epidemiological research and public health planning. In this paper, we...

Public Health, Private Names: Ethical Considerations of Branding Schools of Public Health in the United States

In a resource limited environment, universities may increasingly need to conceive themselves as ‘brands’ and to mobilize capitalist marketing strategies to enhance institutional reputations. Between 1994 and July 2018, 24% of accredited United States public health schools were renamed for private donors. We suggest branding public health schools with private...