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• Seminar Series: Brendan Smith, PhD, and Maxwell Smith, PhD

Seminar Series: Brendan Smith, PhD, and Maxwell Smith, PhD

Date: Friday, February 28
Time: 1:30 pm - 2:30 pm
Location: MSB 384 (Medical Sciences Building)

Modelling Ethical Standards of Health Equity (MESHE): Bridging Ethics and Epidemiology

Abstract
We are all familiar with the distinction between equality and equity. What is less appreciated is that the distinction is an ethical one: it reflects distinctly ethical view that in order to treat people fairly, they ought to be treated in accordance with their unique needs, not in accordance with equality. Yet, this ethical distinction represents the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the different ways we might treat people in the name of ‘health equity’. Indeed, there are a number of ethical standards for how we might do this that are not captured in this classic ‘equity vs. equality’ distinction—a fact that is often overlooked in epidemiological research and practice. For instance, instead of aiming to equalize resources, access to services, or health outcomes (three distinct aims of equality), we might instead aim to ensure that everyone has sufficient resources, access to services, or health outcomes (equality vs. sufficiency), or we might aim to simply prioritize the worse off in these respects (equality vs. priority to the worse off). These is also a distinctly ethical question as to whether the job of ‘equity’ is to fairly distribute resources, access to services, opportunities to be healthy, or health outcomes themselves (or all of the above). In this presentation we will describe a theoretical framework for thinking through sixteen different ethical standards of health equity, each of which are grounded in theories of distributive justice, and report emerging modelling data that tells us the extent to which these ethical approaches have distinct implications for population health outcomes.

Short Bios
Dr. Brendan Smith is a Scientist at Public Health Ontario in Health Promotion, Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention and an Assistant Professor in the Division of Epidemiology at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. His primary research interests focus on the application of epidemiological methods to estimate the health equity impacts of population health interventions. Most recently, his work has focused on estimating the effectiveness of population-level nutrition policies to reduce social inequities in cardiovascular disease. He completed his PhD in Epidemiology at the University of Toronto and his Master of Science in Epidemiology at McGill University. 

Dr. Maxwell Smith is an Assistant Professor in the School of Health Studies and Department of Philosophy at Western University, where he also co-directs the Health Ethics, Law, and Policy (HELP) Lab. He is also an Assistant Professor (status only) in the Division of Clinical Public Health and Joint Centre for Bioethics at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. His primary research interests are in the area of public health ethics, where he bridges philosophical and social science research methods to examine the ethical and practical dimensions of core values animating public health policy and practice, such as ‘health equity’ and ‘social justice’. His research also investigates the ethical issues associated with preparing for and responding to infectious disease outbreaks, in addition to several other issues in public health ethics and bioethics more broadly. He completed his PhD in Public Health Sciences and Bioethics at the University of Toronto and a Master of Science in Bioethics at Union Graduate College and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

Notes:

Coffee and tea will be provided, beginning at 1:00 p.m.

To reduce waste, guests are encouraged to bring a reusable mug or cup to the seminar. All are welcome. View the complete Seminar Series Listing.