Doha, Qatar, 12 November 2020: Qatar Biobank participates in the WISH 2020 World Healthcare Innovation Conference, that’s taking place virtually this year in a unique and fully immersive 3D platform under the banner of ‘One World, Our Health’, from 15th to 19th November 2020, via virtual interactive booth, sharing information about Qatar Biobank and enabling participants to communicate and enquire directly. Furthermore, Qatar Biobank will organize a discussion panel, on the second day of the conference, 16th November 2020, at 2 pm Qatar Time for 45 minutes about “Ethical, legal and social implications (ELSI) in research with vulnerable populations”, in collaboration with its international partners BBMRI-ERIC (Biobanking and Biological and molecular Research Infrastructure resources - European Union research infrastructure), Isber (International Society for Biological and environmental repositories), and ESBB (European, Middle East & African Society for Biopreservation and Biobanking). The panel members are, the speakers, associate professor Dan Catchpoole, head of the tumour bank at the children's hospital at Westmead Sydney Australia, Michael Th. Mayrhofer, political scientist and historian and interim co-Director general of the research infrastructure for biobanks and biomolecular resources, BBMRI-ERIC, Dr Sofie Bekaert, trained as a doctor in Applied Biological Engineering and valorization and innovation manager at Ghent University, and the panel moderator, Dr Reem Al Sulaiman, the interim Deputy Chair of the Medical Genetics Department at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) and a core member of the National Qatar Genome Project Committee.
During this panel, the members will discuss the ethics and regulations in biobanking and research while using the data and samples, the challenges and risks in practice, and privacy, confidentiality and discrimination along with linking all these points to the national vision of precision medicine in Qatar.
Qatar Biobank, part of QF-RDI, is a national population-based platform that was initiated to support the future biomedical research and clinical interventions to improve the health of the population of Qatar.
