The Centre for Applied Ethics presents its 2017-2018 Annual Report

September 20th, 2018

“The MUHC’s CAE represents the next, innovative phase in the evolution of the field of applied ethics in health care.”
- Dr Eugene Bereza, president, Canadian Bioethics Society, May 25, 2017.


This is the CAE’s first annual report. It describes all the activities accomplished by the CAE team in 2017-2018 and highlights certain accomplishments since the CAE's creation in 2014.

Highlights

In 2017-2018, the CAE’s activities stood out for their innovation. The CAE team demonstrated its capacity to innovate, for example by providing ethics consultation services in extremely complex situations arising in clinical, innovative care, research and organisational contexts.

The 2017-2018 Annual Report outlines the significant impact of the CEA's activities on the MUHC and the healthcare ecosystem. For example, the CAE has made major contributions to the development of several institutional policies including the Policy on the Use of Biobanks and Databases for Research Purposes. The CAE also lead the MUHC towards the creation of its first Organisational Ethics Advisory Council (OEAC), chaired by the Associate President and Executive Director, thus setting an example for healthcare institutions.

In addition, the CAE distinguished itself by its performance in many of its activities, notably through its coordination of research ethics review with over 600 new research projects submitted for evaluation by the MUHC Research Ethics Board (REB) in 2017-2018. 

In May 2017, the CAE hosted an important national bioethics conference in Montreal: the annual conference of the Canadian Bioethics Society (CBS). The event was a huge success with over 300 participants, prominent keynote speakers and a congratulatory letter from the Prime Minister of Canada.

CAE functions

CAE activities are divided into seven key functions:

  1. Championing MUHC ethics
  2. Ethics consultation services
  3. Research ethics review
  4. Contribution to policy development
  5. Ethics capacity building at the MUHC
  6. Professional development of the CAE team
  7. Strategic planning, monitoring and evaluation, quality improvement, and accountability