Yesterday, we got to meet with a completely different side of public health. Behind-the-scenes departments like procurement and regulation came to talk to us about how they help FHI 360 achieve its goals and run smoothly. Since, I’m interested in health policy, I was very interested in what the regulators had to say about the balance between under-regulated markets and dangerous drugs, and over-regulated markets and expensive drugs. The general consensus was that it was a hard balance and that there were instances of both, the health policy specialists will be changing in the coming years.
We also got to meet a leader in qualitative research, who talked to us about the interpersonal relationships that are critical to gaining the trust of research subjects. We also learned about the ethical challenges that face research with the advent of technology including things like “whether or not a digital signature can provide consent.”
