International Collaborations: The Future of Healthcare

JLME Special Issue: Summer 2023
Call For Abstracts

Guest Editor: Jaime S. King, JD, PhD, John and Marylyn Mayo Chair in Health Law and Professor of Law, University of Auckland, Faculty of Law

Overview:

Advances in biotechnology, genomics, artificial intelligence, robotics, and data storage and analytics promise to advance the practice of medicine and the provision of health care substantially in the next several decades. However, significant challenges lie ahead for leaders seeking to determine how to prepare to adapt their healthcare systems to take advantage of those technologies, while also ensuring that they can provide equitable and affordable healthcare in times of global uncertainty. For example, nations must develop strategies to properly finance broad access to healthcare; enable individuals to access safe and effective, but increasingly expensive treatments; prepare for the uncertainties of climate change, natural disasters, and public health crises; care for aging populations; and provide equitable healthcare to vulnerable and indigenous populations. According to the World Health Organization, “a well-functioning healthcare system requires a steady financing mechanism, a properly-trained and adequately-paid workforce, well-maintained facilities, and access to reliable information to base decisions on.” A well-functioning system also must provide equitable access to affordable and high quality care. As a result, resource limitations often place the demands of a well-functioning healthcare system in tension with one another.

These challenges are universal, and seemingly insurmountable on a nation by nation basis. Nations have much to learn from one another and much to gain from developing collaborative strategies to share costs, promote innovation, respond to climate change and other public health crises, and promote equitable and affordable health care in the future. Offered in partnership with The University of Auckland, this Special Issue of the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics (JLME) on International Collaborations: The Future of Health Care will explore ideas on how nations can work together to maintain and improve the health of their populations and how to promote sustainable health care in the future. We welcome topics at the intersection of health, law, medicine, science, ethics, biotechnology, and sustainability with an international component to them. Potential topics could include, but are not limited to:

• The Role of the WHO in Public Health Crises
• International Collaboration for Sustainable Health Care
• Use of Technology and Telehealth to Reach Remote Nations
• Global Vaccination Strategies
• Tobacco Control
• Climate Change and Environmental Health
• Global Food Safety, Security, and Sustainability
• Implementation of UN Sustainable Development Goals
• Restructuring Health Systems After Covid-19
• Global Antibiotic Resistance
• Health Information Technology and Privacy
• Artificial Intelligence and Data Sharing

We welcome abstracts from an international and multidisciplinary audience of individuals with expertise in law, medicine, biotechnology, data science, genomics, health services research, economics, philosophy, public health, policymaking, systems and organizational behaviour, among others.

We hope to receive proposals beyond these topics covering additional areas identified by relevant experts. As publication is planned for Summer 2023, authors should consider what issues will still be most relevant at that time.

The Special Issue will be Open Access so that the ideas shared within can be easily accessed by scholars, policymakers, and the public worldwide. We also hope to coordinate a virtual event(s) around the issue’s release.

We will draw papers for the special issue from this call for abstracts, as well as directed invitations for original papers and responses. We anticipate including between 10-12 papers, as well as an introduction to the issue. Article length will be determined when we know how many proposals are accepted; we anticipate that articles will range from 10-20 double spaced pages, including references (endnotes, not footnotes).

Please submit abstracts to Jaime King at Jaime.King@auckland.ac.nz by April 30, 2022.