Bioethics and Evidence-Based Medicine Discussed in Tavricheskiy Palace

On 20 May 2021, the meeting of the IPA CIS Expert Advisory Board on Public Health on the theme “Bioethics and Evidence-Based Medicine in CIS Member Nations” took place in Tavricheskiy Palace – the headquarters of the IPA CIS.

Chair of the IPA CIS Expert Advisory Board on Public Health, RAS academician Yury Shcherbuk moderated the event. The meeting was attended by the CIS MPs, representatives of relevant ministries and agencies of the CIS Members Nations, the WHO Regional Office for Europe, other international organizations and the academic community.

At the beginning of the meeting, IPA CIS Council Secretary General Dmitriy Kobitskiy addressed the participants with a welcoming speech in which he noted the importance of sharing knowledge and uniting efforts in the field of healthcare.

Vice-Governor of St. Petersburg Oleg Ergashev in his welcoming speech noted the urgency of the issues raised.

Opening the presentations of the speakers, the Chair of the Expert Advisory Board described the key problems of the public health in the Russian Federation. These include the growing commercialization of the healthcare system, an outdated medical management system, long-term underfunding of public health, medical education and science, etc. Yury Shcherbuk believes that solving these and many other health problems requires a change in the traditional paradigm of bioethics and the introduction of the methods of evidence-based medicine.

According to Director of the Eurasian Cooperation on Clinical Guidelines and Development of National Health, Doctor of Medicine Sergey Savashinsky, national clinical guidelines cannot exist without evidence-based clinical trials.

Rector of the Belarusian Medical Academy of Postgraduate Education, Associate Professor, Candidate of Medical Sciences, Alexey Chukanov and Acting Director of the Turakulov Scientific and Practical Medical Center of Endocrinology (Uzbekistan), Doctor of Medicine Firuza Khaidarova spoke about the activities in the field of bioethics and evidence-based medicine in their respective countries.

During the meeting, the participants proposed options for international cooperation to develop common approaches in the field of bioethics and evidence-based medicine. In particular, Sergey Savashinsky proposed the idea of creating the Coordination Board on Bioethics and Human Rights Protection at the IPA CIS to coordinate efforts in this area across the Commonwealth.

The meeting participants also touched upon the problems of an intercontinental scale. Head of the Cochrane Collaboration US Division, Vice President of the Guidelines International Network (G-I-N), Vice President of the American College of Physicians (ACP), Doctor of Medicine Amir Kassim (USA) raised the issue of conflicts of interest in healthcare.

Director General of the European Clinical Research Infrastructure Network (ECRIN), Doctor of Medicine, Professor Jacques Demotes (France) and Chair of the Board of the International Association Clinical Research Initiative for Global Health (CRIGH), Doctor of Medicine, Master of Science Oyvind Melien (Norway) presented to the meeting participants a report on international experience in the use of bioethics principles for clinical research and health technology assessment.

The meeting participants also considered the principles of creating national evidence bases in the healthcare of the CIS Member Nations, legal aspects in the field of bioethics and evidence-based medicine, clinical research and assessment of health technologies, ethical aspects of drug development and other issues within the framework of the topic.