DT Campus: Attention needed on bioethics in medical care, says expert

CHENNAI: It was a challenge for the medical fraternity to take ethical decisions in critical situations and hence, there was a need to pay greater attention and importance to bioethics now more than ever before, Dr Russell D’Souza, Director, Department of Education, Melbourne, Australia, said.

Inaugurating the 2nd 3T-IBHSc (Teach, Train and Transfer Integrated Bioethics for Health Sciences), an Accredited Evidence-Based Faculty Development Training Programme in Teaching Bioethics in Medical and Health Professional Education at SRM Medical College Hospital and Research Centre, D’Souza said it was important for the generation of health care providers to provide “value-based ethical quality health and medical care.”

“This is the need of the hour everywhere, but certainly more in India,” Dr D’Souza, who is also the Course Director of the three-day programme, remarked.

“There are over 1 lakh medical faculty in India and we need to take the teaching of bioethics very seriously,” he said.

Emphasising the need for greater adoption of the study of bioethics in medical schools, he said the awareness had now increased.

In his presidential address, Dr Lt Col A Ravikumar, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Medical and Health Sciences, said the programme assumed much importance in the post-pandemic era. He said it was important for the teaching fraternity to ensure that every medical health professional understands values and all aspects of bioethics.