IMU Alumnus Certified as a Paediatric Bioethicist with Scholarship from Claire Giannini Trust Fund

IMU alumnus and lecturer, Dr Erwin Khoo Jiayuan recently obtained a certification in pediatric bioethics from the Children’s Mercy Bioethics Center, Missouri in affiliation with the University of Missouri – Kansas City, School of Medicine. Dr Erwin was one of only two Malaysians to be certified as Paediatric Bioethicist. While completing this 2015/16 certification programme, he was granted the United States Claire Giannini Trust Scholarship which provides a full scholarship award for the year 2015/16 that includes accommodation and travel to Children’s Mercy Hospital, Missouri. Claire Giannini Fund supports and promotes the health and well-being of young people under 18. The Children’s Mercy Pediatric Bioethics Certificate Programme addressed many controversial issues related to child health policy, research ethics involving minors, and paediatric clinical ethics consult. Recently, these include the proposals to do genomic screening in all newborns, the calls to ban American high school football, the controversial judgement against Wally Carlo and the SUPPORT study investigators, and a study in the New England Journal that showed 25% of NICUs attempt resuscitation on all babies born at 22 weeks of gestation among others. This programme also gave him the opportunity to interact with like-minded individuals from 10 countries who joined the 2015/16 programme. Another IMU staff who is a certified Pediatric Bioethicist from the group year 2011/12 is A/Prof Stefan Kutzsche, Acting Director, IMU Centre for Education (ICE).