Bernice S Elger
Biographic Data
| ID | 4429831 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Bernice S Elger |
| GIVEN NAMES | Bernice S |
| FAMILY NAME | Elger |
| SIGNATURE | ELGER B S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Geneva |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4249-7399 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 53 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 20 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 50 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 3 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2000 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
A Need for Societal Involvement in Promoting a Culture of Care in Animal Research
Protecting affiliation during pandemic crises
During the COVID-19 pandemic, non-pharmaceutical interventions that affected people's ability to access and maintain social relationships, which philosopher Martha Nussbaum calls "affiliation", were implemented. However, the WHO has reported that no measures to actively protect social relationships have been put in place. Furthermore, existing pandemic ethical frameworks do not explicitly specify affiliation protection as a relevant ethical consi…
Mapping loneliness prevention and alleviation interventions
Introduction: Loneliness affects 38% of Swiss residents, higher than the global average. Considering that loneliness is associated with increased morbidity and mortality akin to smoking, drinking and obesity, the state of loneliness represents a serious health risk. To date no study has been undertaken to assess the landscape of loneliness prevention and alleviation interventions (LPAIs) in a high-income country like Switzerland and to compare th…
“Should I continue with this profession or not?”
The COVID-19 pandemic led to an extraordinary situation of resource scarcity and pushed healthcare to its limits. Consequently, healthcare professionals (HCPs) faced moral and ethical challenges that served as potential triggers for moral distress. The purpose of this study was to identify moral distress experiences of HCPs during the COVID-19 pandemic. We conducted 30 semi-structured interviews with HCPs working in the German part of Switzerland…
Psychological stressors of imprisonment and coping of older incarcerated persons
To improve the psychological well-being of older incarcerated persons, there is a need for: specialised training of prison staff regarding hardships that elderly persons can face in prison relationships, encouragement and enablement of social contacts with the outside world, and increasing possibilities for autonomy, new challenges, and thus stimuli within a limited setting
Developing more inclusive approaches to animal research and patient involvement
Doing scientific research with animals is a subject of intense societal debate, often involving polarized and public discussions with stakeholders and groups interested in animal research. Patients, given their medical conditions, have a high stake in biomedical research, including research involving animals. However, their perspectives are rarely heard in policy-related discussions on animal experiments. This essay discusses the positions and st…
How are legal rules on advanced parental age and access to Assistive Reproductive Technologies experienced by Swiss care professionals? A qualitative interview-based study
Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) are increasingly used to conceive a child. Starting a family using ART requires the collaboration of healthcare professionals and medical interventions, and is thus heavily regulated. The law plays a central role in determining which patients and upon fulfilling which conditions can access ART. Although the law sets the general rules, it is care professionals who need to apply and enforce them in concrete …
One R or the other – an experimental bioethics approach to 3R dilemmas in animal research
Sacrificial dilemmas such as the trolley problem play an important role in experimental philosophy (x-phi). But it is increasingly argued that, since we are not likely to encounter runaway trolleys in our daily life, the usefulness of such thought experiments for understanding moral judgments in more ecologically valid contexts may be limited. However, similar sacrificial dilemmas are experienced in real life by animal research decision makers. A…
IAB 16th World Congress
Attended by 691 delegates from 62 countries, the 16th World Congress of Bioethics (WCB) was successfully held in Basel, Switzerland, from 20–22 July 2022. This first-ever hybrid congress in light of the Covid-19 pandemic was hosted by the Institute for Biomedical Ethics at the University of Basel (IBMB) upon the approval of the International Association of Bioethics' (IAB) board of directors in June 2020. This special issue is a collaboration bet…
“It was not an accident”
In recent decades, there has been an increase in motherhood at an advanced age that has raised several medical and social concerns. We conducted a qualitative interview study, guided by Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, to focus on the motivations and experiences of Belgian women who 'renewed' their motherhood later in life, meaning they had one or several children and then (at least 10 years later) had another child at the age of 40 or o…
Chains, trains and automobiles
Imprisoned persons are transported for several purposes including transfers to a different prison, legal-procedural reasons such as court hearings, and to receive medical treatments. The availability and acceptability of transportation may limit access to healthcare if health services cannot be provided within the prison grounds. The aim of this article is to examine the conditions of medical transport for older prisoners in Switzerland and to as…
Rethinking advanced motherhood
The aim of the study is to rethink the ethics of advanced motherhood. In the literature, delayed childbearing is usually discussed in the context of reproductive justice, and in relationship to ethical issues associated with the use and risk of assisted reproductive technologies. We aim to go beyond these more “traditional” ways in which reproductive ethics is framed by revisiting ethics itself through the lens of the figure of the so-called “old…
Artificial intelligence and the doctor–patient relationship expanding the paradigm of shared decision making
Artificial intelligence (AI) based clinical decision support systems (CDSS) are becoming ever more widespread in healthcare and could play an important role in diagnostic and treatment processes. For this reason, AI‐based CDSS has an impact on the doctor–patient relationship, shaping their decisions with its suggestions. We may be on the verge of a paradigm shift, where the doctor–patient relationship is no longer a dual relationship, but a triad…
Stigma management during reintegration of older incarcerated adults with mental health issues
INTRODUCTION: The number of older prisoners with mental health issues released from prisons and forensic psychiatric institutions is rising. Their successful integration is important due to its implications for the public's safety and the individual's health and well-being. However, reintegration efforts are hampered due to the double stigma attached to 'mental illness' and 'incarceration history'. To alleviate the burden of such stigma, affected…
Crime hierarchy, victimization and coping results of a qualitative study on the older incarcerated Person's mental health in Switzerland
Motivation and training needs of prison healthcare professionals
Health care in prison is a challenging task. The conditions of imprisonment create distinct difficulties for those providing health care in this setting. These particular circumstances have led to a shortage of quality professionals, working for the health of imprisoned people. The aim of this study is to elaborate reasons for healthcare professionals to work in a prison environment. The main research question is: why do healthcare workers choose…
Care of Older Persons in Eastern Africa
Introduction The aging population is rapidly increasing globally, with 80% of the older population living in low- and middle-income countries. In Eastern African countries, there exists an incongruence between readiness–economically, structurally, politically, and culturally–to create a conducive environment for healthy aging, which implies public health as well as ethical concerns. The aim of this scoping review was to explore existing evidence …
The devil is in the details
Cancer registries are an important part of the public health infrastructure, since they allow to monitor the temporal trends of this illness as well as facilitate epidemiological research. In order to effectively set up such registries, it is necessary to create a system of data collection that permits to record health-related information from patients who are diagnosed with cancer. Given the sensitive nature of such data, it is debated whether t…
Systemic Fairness for Sharing Health Data
Introduction: Health research is gradually embracing a more collectivist approach, fueled by a new movement of open science, data sharing and collaborative partnerships. However, the existence of systemic contradictions hinders the sharing of health data and such collectivist endeavor. Therefore, this qualitative study explores these systemic barriers to a fair sharing of health data from the perspectives of Swiss stakeholders. Methods: Purposive…
Evolution or Revolution? Recommendations to Improve the Swiss Health Data Framework
Background: Facilitating access to health data for public health and research purposes is an important element in the health policy agenda of many countries. Improvements in this sense can only be achieved with the development of an appropriate data infrastructure and the implementations of policies that also respect societal preferences. Switzerland is a revealing example of a country that has been struggling to achieve this aim. The objective o…
Trust trumps comprehension, visceral factors trump all
This paper addresses psychological factors that might interfere with informed consent on the part of stable patients as potential early-phase clinical trial participants. Thirty-six semistructured interviews with patients who had either diabetes or gout were conducted. We investigated stable patients’ attitudes towards participating in a fictitious first-in-human trial of a novel intervention. We focused on an in-depth analysis of those statement…
Towards a pragmatist dealing with algorithmic bias in medical machine learning
Machine Learning (ML) is on the rise in medicine, promising improved diagnostic, therapeutic and prognostic clinical tools. While these technological innovations are bound to transform health care, they also bring new ethical concerns to the forefront. One particularly elusive challenge regards discriminatory algorithmic judgements based on biases inherent in the training data. A common line of reasoning distinguishes between justified differenti…
Digital Technologies for Schizophrenia Management
While the implementation of digital technology in psychiatry appears promising, there is an urgent need to address the implications of the absence of ethical design in the early development of such technologies. Some authors have noted the gap between technology development and ethical analysis and have called for an upstream examination of the ethical issues raised by digital technologies. In this paper, we address this suggestion, particularly …
Autonomy and social influence in predictive genetic testing decision‐making
Beauchamp and Childress’ definition of autonomous decision‐making includes the conditions of intentionality, understanding, and non‐control. In genetics, however, a relational conception of autonomy has been increasingly recognized. This article aims to empirically assess aspects of social influence in genetic testing decision‐making and to connect these with principlist and relational theories of autonomy. We interviewed 18 adult genetic counsel…
What characterizes a good mental health professional in court-mandated treatment settings
Our findings indicate that some therapist-related activities and characteristics are of particular importance in court-mandated settings. These include genuine interest in the patient, a respectful and positive attitude, as well as the capacity to target sensitive issues in a directive but non-confrontational manner. Further research needs to identify specific expressions and behaviors that are linked to the aforementioned characteristics in the …
The collision of care and punishment
Most prisoners wish to spend their last days outside prison. Early release of seriously ill and ageing prisoners, commonly termed compassionate release, can be granted based on legal regulations but is rarely successful. The aim of this paper is to present the views of ageing prisoners on compassionate release using qualitative interviews. Participants argued for compassionate release on the grounds of illness and old age, citing respect for huma…
Easily forgotten
Working Through Ethics Review of Big Data Research Projects
The employment of Big Data as an increasingly used research method has introduced novel challenges to ethical research practices and to ethics committees (ECs) globally. The aim of this study is to explore the experiences of scholars with ECs in the ethical evaluation of Big Data projects. Thirty-five interviews were performed with Swiss and American researchers involved in Big Data research in psychology and sociology. The interviews were analyz…
Assisted suicide for prisoners? Stakeholder and prisoner perspectives
For a wider project on aging in prison, the authors interviewed 35 older prisoners and 24 stakeholders (prison staff, prison healthcare professionals, and policy makers) about healthcare for prisoners. In all, 6 prisoners and 3 stakeholders spontaneously expressed their attitudes concerning assisted suicide. Some prisoners seek assisted suicide for medical reasons and others because they regard spending the rest of their lives in prison as undign…
New Cannibal Markets
Thanks to recent progress in biotechnology, surrogacy, transplantation of organs and tissues, blood products or stem-cell and gamete banks are now widely used throughout the world. These techniques improve the health and well-being of some human beings using products or functions that come from the body of others. Growth in demand and absence of an appropriate international legal framework have led to the development of a lucrative global trade i…
The Ethics of End-of-Trial Obligations in a Pediatric Malaria Vaccine Trial
This study explores stakeholder experiences and perspectives on end-of-trial obligations at the close of a phase II/III Pediatric Malaria Vaccine Trial (PMVT) [GSK/PATH-MVI RTS, S) (NCT00866619]. We conducted 52 key informant interviews with major stakeholders of an international multicentre PMVT in Ghana and Tanzania. The responses fell into four main themes: (a) Communicating End-of-Trial, (b) Maintaining Health Care Services, (c) Dissemination…
Aging Prisoners in Switzerland
Study findings underline that older prisoners utilized health care more often than younger prisoners although in most models the finding did not reach statistical significance. The prison system must develop solutions to address the needs of an aging population, particularly those with physical and mental health problems
Case Study
Monica, a forty-nine-year-old divorced mother of two children in their early twenties, was admitted to the hospital for acute respiratory insufficiency on a Friday evening. She is a heavy smoker and had experienced dyspnea for several weeks previously, but had not sought medical advice. Chest x-ray revealed several abnormalities and a bronchoscopy was scheduled for Monday morning. On Saturday evening Monica's difficulty breathing worsened and dur…
Exposure to tobacco smoke before and after a partial smoking ban in prison
The partial smoking ban was followed by a decrease in nicotine concentrations in ambient air. These improvements can be attributed to the introduction of the smoking ban since no other policy change occurred during this period. Although this shows that concentrations of SHS decreased significantly, protection was still incomplete and further action is necessary to improve indoor air quality
Cannabis use in a Swiss male prison
Easily forgotten
Prioritising Healthcare Workers for E bola Treatment
The E bola epidemic in W estern A frica has highlighted issues related to weak health systems, the politics of drug and vaccine development and the need for transparent and ethical criteria for use of scarce local and global resources during public health emergency. In this paper we explore two key themes. First, we argue that independent of any use of experimental drugs or vaccine interventions, simultaneous implementation of proven public healt…
Disease profiles of detainees in the Canton of Vaud in Switzerland
It is important to understand the different disease profiles of prisoners by gender and age, as it helps identify the needs of different groups and tailor age-and gender-specific interventions
Aging Prisoners in Switzerland
Study findings underline that older prisoners utilized health care more often than younger prisoners although in most models the finding did not reach statistical significance. The prison system must develop solutions to address the needs of an aging population, particularly those with physical and mental health problems
New Cannibal Markets
Thanks to recent progress in biotechnology, surrogacy, transplantation of organs and tissues, blood products or stem-cell and gamete banks are now widely used throughout the world. These techniques improve the health and well-being of some human beings using products or functions that come from the body of others. Growth in demand and absence of an appropriate international legal framework have led to the development of a lucrative global trade i…
Umweltethik interdisziplinär
The contributions to this collection stem from a series of lectures given at Basel University during the spring semester of 2013. The wide variety of topics covered reaches from the philosophical question to environmental economics and theological and religious study issues right up to the controversial debate on to whom mankind owes moral responsibility.
Umweltethik Interdisziplinär
Die Beiträge dieses Sammelbandes gehen aus einer Ringvorlesung im Frühjahrssemester 2013 an der Universität Basel hervor. Die Herausgeberinnen und Herausgeber, tätig in der Bioethik, der Philosophie, der Theologie und in der Rechtswissenschaft, konnten Kolleginnen und Kollegen aus Basel und anderen Universitäten aus diesen und weiteren Fächern, wie der Wirtschaftswissenschaft oder der Religionswissenschaft, zur Teilnahme an der Ringvorlesung gewi…
Social and Assistive Robotics in Dementia Care
The collision of care and punishment
Most prisoners wish to spend their last days outside prison. Early release of seriously ill and ageing prisoners, commonly termed compassionate release, can be granted based on legal regulations but is rarely successful. The aim of this paper is to present the views of ageing prisoners on compassionate release using qualitative interviews. Participants argued for compassionate release on the grounds of illness and old age, citing respect for huma…
Assisted suicide for prisoners? Stakeholder and prisoner perspectives
For a wider project on aging in prison, the authors interviewed 35 older prisoners and 24 stakeholders (prison staff, prison healthcare professionals, and policy makers) about healthcare for prisoners. In all, 6 prisoners and 3 stakeholders spontaneously expressed their attitudes concerning assisted suicide. Some prisoners seek assisted suicide for medical reasons and others because they regard spending the rest of their lives in prison as undign…
Emerging Issues in Prison Health
Factors Affecting Women's Autonomous Decision Making In Research Participation Amongst Yoruba Women Of Western Nigeria
Research is a global enterprise requiring participation of both genders for generalizable knowledge; advancement of science and evidence based medical treatment. Participation of women in research is necessary to reduce the current bias that most empirical evidence is obtained from studies with men to inform health care and related policy interventions. Various factors are assumed to limit autonomy amongst the Yoruba women of western Nigeria. Thi…
The Ethics of Health Care Delivery in a Pediatric Malaria Vaccine Trial
This study explores ethical issues raised in providing medical care to participants and communities of low-resource settings involved in a Phase II/III pediatric malaria vaccine trial (PMVT). We conducted 52 key informant interviews with major stakeholders of an international multi-center PMVT (GSK/PATH-MVI RTS,S) (NCT00866619) in Ghana and Tanzania. Based on their stakeholder experiences, the responses fell into three main themes: (a) undue indu…
Prisons should mirror society
The debate on age-segregated housing for older prisoners has seldom captured the perspectives of older prisoners and professionals (‘stakeholders’) working in a European prison setting. To address this gap in the research, 35 older prisoners from Switzerland and 40 stakeholders from three European countries (including Switzerland) were interviewed for the study. Data analysis was conducted thematically, and the validity of coding was established …
Good collaborative practice
In line with the policy objectives of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, this commentary seeks to examine the extent to which provisions of international health research guidance promote capacity building and equitable partnerships in global health research. Our evaluation finds that governance of collaborative research partnerships, and in particular capacity building, in resource-constrained settings is limited but has improved w…
Defining Health Research for Development
OBJECTIVES: The study uses a qualitative empirical method to define Health Research for Development. This project explores the perspectives of stakeholders in an international health research partnership operating in Ghana and Tanzania. METHODS: We conducted 52 key informant interviews with major stakeholders in an international multicenter partnership between GlaxoSmithKline (GSK, Vaccine Developer) and the global health nonprofit organisation P…
“You cannot collect data using your own resources and put It on open access”
Data‐sharing is a desired default in the field of public health and a source of much ethical deliberation. Sharing data potentially contributes the largest, most efficient source of scientific data, but is fraught with contextual challenges which make stakeholders, particularly those in under‐resourced contexts hesitant or slow to share. Relatively little empirical research has engaged stakeholders in discussing the issue. This study sought to ex…
Application of Ethical Principles to Research using Public Health Data in The Global South
Existing ethics guidelines, influential literature and policies on ethical research generally focus on real‐time data collection from humans. They enforce individual rights and liberties, thereby lowering need for aggregate protections. Although dependable, emerging public health research paradigms like research using public health data ( RUPD ) raise new challenges to their application. Unlike traditional research, RUPD is population‐based, alig…
The Ethics of End-of-Trial Obligations in a Pediatric Malaria Vaccine Trial
This study explores stakeholder experiences and perspectives on end-of-trial obligations at the close of a phase II/III Pediatric Malaria Vaccine Trial (PMVT) [GSK/PATH-MVI RTS, S) (NCT00866619]. We conducted 52 key informant interviews with major stakeholders of an international multicentre PMVT in Ghana and Tanzania. The responses fell into four main themes: (a) Communicating End-of-Trial, (b) Maintaining Health Care Services, (c) Dissemination…
Content, evaluations and influences in newspaper coverage of predictive genetic testing
Predictive genetic testing often entails challenging decisions about preventive measures and uncertain health-related risk predictions. Because of its increasing availability, it is important to assess how to debate it publicly. Newspaper content analysis represents a common and reliable way to investigate public discourse retrospectively. We thus quantitatively compare broadsheet newspaper coverage about predictive genetic testing in the United …
Cognitive enhancement for the ageing world
Population ageing and the global burden of dementia pose a major challenge for human societies and a priority for public health. Cognitive enhancement, i.e. the targeted amplification of core cognitive abilities, is raising increasing attention among researchers as an effective strategy to complement traditional therapeutic and assistive approaches, and reduce the impact of age-related cognitive disability. In this paper, we discuss the possible …
Understanding access to professional healthcare among asylum seekers facing gender-based violence
BACKGROUND: When it comes to gender-based violence (GBV), migrant women and girls represent the most vulnerable group. GBV can happen at any stage of migrants' flight and/or during the asylum process. It has severe consequences on their life and health. Victims therefore need timely access to healthcare. This study explores the context GBV victims face when they seek refuge in Switzerland. METHODS: Qualitative methodology was used where we conduc…
Medicine (40 works) · Political science (33 works) · Psychology (31 works) · Sociology (24 works) · Law (17 works) · Qualitative research (17 works) · Health care (15 works) · Psychiatry (15 works) · Prison (14 works) · Public relations (14 works)