#medicalvolunteers (MVs) from HICs seek out #LMICs for short-term exp in #globalhealth for many reasons

@heather_haq, Laurel Hyle, & I examined the problematic #ethics when MVs prioritize image capture and sharing of their clinical exp on #SocialMedia

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/dewb.12267

We analyzed a real-life event by a short-term MV I witnessed while working overseas

Obviously, this is a deeply egregious act by the MV

The reality is, however, many situations play out just like this, even if not overtly harmful as this

With the ubiquity of social media in our daily lives, little thought is given to the consequences of such interactions

Short-term experiences in global health ( #STEGH) are a multi-billion $ annual enterprise

But there are stark power imbalances between the sending and host countries

Like #photoethics before it, #socialmedia presents the next landscape where ethical issues arise over how this imagery is extracted and disseminated and how the subjects of the images are portrayed

of course, because of #COVID19 many of these trips have been put on hold.

Now is the time to reflect on these issues in order to prepare for when they resume

Serious questions should be asked of the arrangements between HIC MV-sending programs and LMIC hosts to determine what allows unethical extraction of imagery to occur and persist.

This includes much-needed social media use education during pre-departure training

What impact does this have on the individual subjected to this media capture? Whose voice is represented? Who benefits?

What is the impact on host communities? How might they react to hearing news that a foreign stranger will capture their image?

What are the consequences for international partnerships already vulnerable to the one-way flow of resources?

What happens should these partnerships dissolve (as was the case here) in response to unethical use of social media?

a more equitable arrangement, with host partners contributing input to social media use guidelines, will help to offset historic power imbalances and will protect vulnerable patients

We've dev'd a tool which can be a starting place (see Supporting Information in link above too)

If we view our partners through a lens of #solidarity then we are better positioned to achieve the intent of #STEGH to ameliorate inequity and injustice

For those of us engaged in #globalhealth, this is something we should all care about addressing

(happy to share paper via DM)

perhaps of interest to #MedTwitter @CUGH_TAC @dcmays @born_reddy @DoctorODonovan @OmniMedUG @BhavyaRehaniMD @BioethicsGlobal @AE_Yamin @keymenthri @ceelwaaq @paimadhu @AnantBhan @ChandyJohnLab @alameenuy @synthymama @PadmaGloHealth @hastingscenter @JournalofEthics @AbraarKaran