Ethics
In order to address the social, economic and ethical issues surrounding pharmacogenomics, we have established a collaboration with Yann Joly, LLB LLM, and Denise Avard, PhD, at the Centre de Recherche en Droit Public (CRDP) at the Université de Montréal. They will assist in establishing the policies and governance for how pharmacogenomics information can be translated into clinically useful information in diagnostic tests.
Another important goal of this collaboration is to promote the education and dissemination of information about pharmacogenomics to policy makers, health professionals and community groups. As a first step, a series of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about pharmacogenomics has been prepared.
Yann Joly, LLB, LLM
Yann Joly is a lawyer, research associate and project manager for the Humgen research group of the Centre de recherche en droit public of the Université de Montreal. His research activities focus on the field of intellectual property, international law and bioethics. Mr. Joly is currently completing a doctorate in civil law (D.C.L) at the McGill University Faculty of Law. His thesis project addresses the use of open models of collaboration in the field of biotechnology. He is also a sessional lecturer in intellectual property and industrial property at that university. During the last few years, Mr. Joly sat as a legal representative on several of the research ethics committees of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC). He is currently the North American coordinator of the Association for Research and Formation in Medical Law (ARFDM). Mr. Joly was also a member of the External Working Group on the Registration and Disclosure of Clinical Trial Information (EWG-CT) formed by Health Canada in 2006. He is also a principal investigator He has authored some thirty articles and book chapters on ethical, legal and social questions associated with recent developments in the field of biotechnology.
Denise Avard, PhD
Denise Avard is the Research Director for the Genetics and Society Project. Her research interests are in the areas of policy development regarding pharmacogenomics, genetic testing and screening relevant to newborn, children, adolescents and persons with disabilities. She has an added interest in knowledge transfer and genetic epidemiology. She obtained her doctorate in social epidemiology from the University of Cambridge, England, and a Master’s degree in sociology and a Bachelor’s degree in Nursing from the University of Ottawa. Prior to joining the CRDP she was Executive Director of the Canadian Institute of Child Health and Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Calgary.
