Nancy Kass « Berman Institute Bioethics Bulletin

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Johns Hopkins professors argue ‘dual loyalty’ compromises health care in migrant detention facilities

August 30, 2019

New from Berman Institute faculty Nancy Kass and Len Rubenstein in JAMA Viewpoint: “Can Physicians Work in US Immigration Detention Facilities While Upholding Their Hippocratic Oath?”

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Complex Language Hinders Informed Consent

August 14, 2019

Researchers were surprised at the high reading level required to understand consent forms and how many difficult words appear in informed consent documents. “Ethically, it is important to patients to understand the options available to them,” says Nancy E. Kass, deputy director for public health at the Berman Institute

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The Identity Crisis of America’s Largest Anti-Hunger Program

August 2, 2019

The very nature and purpose of SNAP, or food stamps, remains a point of contention between public health and anti-hunger communities. With our Nancy Kass

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The Identity Crisis of America’s Largest Anti-Hunger Program

Friday, August 2nd, 2019

When Walter Willett speaks, people listen. Among the world’s most cited nutrition researchers, Willett, who chaired the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health for 25 years, has been an outspoken advocate for evidence-based policies that run counter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s cozy relationship with the food industry for over four decades. He campaigned to discredit the USDA’s food guide pyramid, a deeply flawed and now-defunct infographic that was shaped by agribusiness lobbyists; he has steadfastly criticized the agency — and the dairy industry — for unscientifically pushing milk as a superfood; and he fought tirelessly to get trans fats out of our food supply (they were eventually banned in 2015).

Willett’s record isn’t entirely unblemished, however. He’s been criticized by some for oversimplifying science for the sake of delivering a clear public health message and for allowing his ideological views to influence his research. Others, meanwhile, have lambasted the field of nutrition science itself, citing, among other challenges, the messy nature of observational studies.

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Anti-hunger advocates and the beverage industry often frame their opposition in abstract terms of the loss of the cherished value of freedom of choice, a foundational principle of our society and market economy. But as the Johns Hopkins University bioethicist Nancy Kass has keenly observed, we all make food choices within established parameters. Our consumption behavior is not free at all, she notes in a 2014 American Journal of Public Health article, but constrained by the environment in which we live. Access, location, and even our meal companions all affect our dietary choices. Similarly, the external environment through marketing (such as store-level signage and product placement) and advertising affects our ability to make healthy choices.

…continue reading ‘The Identity Crisis of America’s Largest Anti-Hunger Program’

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On the Ethics of Open Science

April 24, 2019

Our Nancy Kass writes, ” Open science promises considerable ethical good: speeding up medical discovery, avoiding unnecessary duplication, creating efficiencies, and encouraging more democratic science….But leaving discussions of ethics and open science simply to the good that can come and the need for privacy protections is concerningly narrow.

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On the Ethics of Open Science

Wednesday, April 24th, 2019

By Nancy Kass

(Part of CAOS: Critical Assessment of Open Science: A Series of Posts Featuring Voices from the Open Science Movement)

Ethics is an essential consideration for any research initiative that collects, uses, or reuses human data or samples. In data activities of these types, ethics concerns — whether raised by institutional review boards (IRBs) tasked with reviewing projects, or in the published literature — seem to focus almost entirely on questions of adequate privacy practices and security protections. Questions are raised about what fields are kept, what permissions have been provided for future access, and whether potential participants have adequately understood relevant parameters.

And yet considerations of ethics go beyond who gives permission for or has access to individuals’ data. Open science promises considerable ethical good: speeding up medical discovery, avoiding unnecessary duplication, creating efficiencies, and encouraging more democratic science. These are unquestionably ethical goods. But leaving discussions of ethics and open science simply to the good that can come and the need for privacy protections is concerningly narrow.

Open-science projects should also actively evaluate how the potential benefit of helping others actually will be realized, and what they can build into their structures to increase the chance that this will occur. Will open science simply allow users to do what they want with data as long as those whose data are included have been informed that the data will be widely shared? Or will the ethics of open-science support work to help ensure that goals, such as benefit and fairness, are more likely to be realized?

…continue reading ‘On the Ethics of Open Science’

“Reverse Innovation” Could Save Lives. Why Aren’t We Embracing It?

February 5, 2019

Cheap and simple medical devices could improve performance and lower health-care costs, but first they have to overcome deeply rooted biases. With comments from our Nancy Kass

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Blowing the Whistle on the Tuskegee Syphilis Study

October 25, 2017

In 1932 the U.S. Public Health Service enlisted African-American men in Macon County, Alabama in a syphilis study. The men weren’t asked for informed consent — and were told they would get treatment. They didn’t, even after penicillin was shown to cure syphilis. Host Sheilah Kast discusses what happened and the implications for research today with whistleblower, Peter Buxtun, and our Nancy Kass

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Alliance for a Healthier World at Johns Hopkins Awards Grants to Eight Interdisciplinary Teams

October 12, 2017

Awards support projects designed to impact health inequities in low-, middle-income countries. Recipients include our Nancy Kass, part of the team working on strengthening health service delivery and building human capacity to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality in Sierra Leone

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Alliance for a Healthier World at Johns Hopkins Awards Grants to Eight Interdisciplinary Teams

Thursday, October 12th, 2017

The Alliance for a Healthier World at Johns Hopkins University has awarded grants of up to $25,000 to eight interdisciplinary teams from across the university for projects designed to directly impact health inequities in low- and middle-income countries.

A total of $170,000 in grants were awarded to teams containing a combination of researchers from the Applied Physics Lab, the Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Carey Business School, the Berman Institute of Bioethics, Jhpiego, the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, the School of Education, the School of Medicine, the School of Nursing, and the Whiting School of Engineering.

Their projects will focus on communities in Bolivia, India, Jordan, Lebanon, Peru, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, and Uganda, as well as the White Mountain Apache and Sioux tribes in the U.S.

“One thing we found from the first planning grants is that proposals were submitted by teams where the core of the team members were already working together,” said David Peters, the alliance’s director and chair of the Department of International Health at the Bloomberg School. “For future rounds, we are hoping to provide opportunities to expand the teams further, and to find ways for people who aren’t already working together to join existing collaborations and create new ones.”

This is the first round of planning grants awarded by the Alliance for a Healthier World, formerly the Global Health Signature Initiative. Proposals for a second cycle, with awards up to $25,000, are due by Nov. 15; additional details will soon be announced on the Alliance for a Healthier World website and in the monthly internal funding digest on research.jhu.edu.

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What Ethical Issues Does the Precision Medicine Initiative Face?

July 11, 2017

Chair of research program’s institutional review board details big challenges ahead. “This is the largest government study ever on its own people.” Nancy Kass, Sc.D., a professor of bioethics and public health at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics was talking about the Precision Medicine Initiative, now called the All of Us Research Program

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Johns Hopkins professors argue ‘dual loyalty’ compromises health care in migrant detention facilities

Johns Hopkins professors argue ‘dual loyalty’ compromises health care in migrant detention facilities

Complex Language Hinders Informed Consent

The Identity Crisis of America’s Largest Anti-Hunger Program

The Identity Crisis of America’s Largest Anti-Hunger Program

On the Ethics of Open Science

“Reverse Innovation” Could Save Lives. Why Aren’t We Embracing It?

“Reverse Innovation” Could Save Lives. Why Aren’t We Embracing It?

Blowing the Whistle on the Tuskegee Syphilis Study

Blowing the Whistle on the Tuskegee Syphilis Study

Alliance for a Healthier World at Johns Hopkins Awards Grants to Eight Interdisciplinary Teams

Alliance for a Healthier World at Johns Hopkins Awards Grants to Eight Interdisciplinary Teams

What Ethical Issues Does the Precision Medicine Initiative Face?

What Ethical Issues Does the Precision Medicine Initiative Face?

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