World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH) yesterday released a specialised report from an Islamic perspective on ethical questions surrounding genomics — a discipline seeing increased interest in the region.
‘Genomics in The Gulf region and Islamic Ethics’ report includes policy recommendations, on how to create culturally sensitive guidelines regarding genomics.
Genomics is the study of genes and their function and examines genetic factors which play a role in the disease and helps in its treatment.
As interest in the field increases in Qatar, other Gulf and Muslim countries use of morality and ethics are poised to gain further attention, said Dr Mohammed Ghaly, Professor of Islam and biomedical ethics at the centre for Islamic legislation and ethics, Qatar Faculty of Islamic Studies at the Hamad bin Khalifa University.
“Given the foreseeable scientific leap in genomics in the region, the need for a strong scientific research in Islamic ethics is more urgent than ever,” he said in a panel discussion. Dr Ghaly is also the editor of the report on ‘Genomics In The Gulf region and Islamic Ethics.’
The report has made six recommendations aiming to improve discussions on the issue, propel them towards maturity and develop culturally sensitive policy guidelines and jurisdictions.
The recommendations include that patients should be informed of previously undiagnosed medical conditions found during the genomic mapping, rigorous research on Islamic ethics in order to properly indigenise genomics in the Gulf region.
WISH 2016 in its first day yesterday also released reports and held panel discussions on autism, health professional education, precision medicine, accountable care and behavioural insights.
Also WISH policy briefings were held on health affairs-using evidence based policy solutions to address health challenges and learning from international collaborations.
The report on ‘Precision Medicine: A Global Action Plan for impact’ has identified four major challenges as patient and public engagement, evidence generation, implementation, data ownership, privacy and sharing.
