The Challenges of Ethics in Medical Research and Technologies

2nd International Congress of the Mozambican Medical Council

12th Congress of the Portuguese-Speaking Medical Community

The Challenges of Ethics in Medical Research and Technologies

Took place in Maputo City on 29th and 30th May, the 2nd International Congress of the Mozambican Medical Council (Ordem dos Médicos de Moçambique) and the 12th Congress of the Portuguese-speaking Medical Councils, under the maxim "The challenges of ethics in medical research and use of technology”. The presentations from medical doctors and other health professionals from the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (known as Comunidade de Países de Lingua Portuguesa) were mainly related to the use of digital technologies in medical education, in health research and in the provision of health services. Experiences related to current use of health technologies (including digital health technologies) were presented as well as challenges for its use from ethical and regulatory perspective. Thus, the Mozambican team from STRATEGIC Project made use of this opportunity and led a roundtable session on ethical and regulatory challenges of digital health technologies in clinical trials as well as for other types of research. Following presentation were carried out: Celso Give gave an overview of what digital health technologies are and outlined general ethical and regulatory issues related to use of digital health technologies in research. Celos ended his presentation with some of the preliminary findings obtained by STRATEGIC and concluded with several questions for discussion by other panel members as well as the general audience of Congress. Senior member from Mozambican National Bioethics Committee (Comité Nacional de Bioética para Saúde, CNBS) as well as from the National Agency for Regulations of Medicines (Agencia Nacional Reguladora de Medicamentos, ANARME) and a representative of medical private sector from Portugal took part in the discussions. The roundtable was led (moderator) by Jahit Sacarlal. The discussions were broad and recognized the challenges imposed by rapid advancement and introduction of digital health technologies in Portuguese Speaking Countries and the need to cooperate to address ethical and regulatory challenges that are common to all these countries.

Below, photo taken on the occasion of the roundtable when Jahit Sacarlal was making introductions of the panel members.

Mozambican STRATEGIC Project TEAM/University Eduardo Mondlane (UEM)

Maputo, 30th May 2025