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Vicki Marsh

Doctoral Research Student in Global Ethics

Research Areas

Department Research Areas

Email
Tel 01865 287887
Contact address The Ethox Centre, Department of Public Health, University of Oxford, Old Road Campus, Oxford OX3 7LF.
College Kellogg College

Vicki Marsh is a member of the Social and Behavioural Research Group at the KEMRI (Kenya Medical Research Institute)-Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Kilifi, Kenya, and is registered through the Ethox Centre for a DPhil in Public Health. Her research addresses ethical issues around international research practice in the context of population based genetics and genomics research with a focus on understanding and responding to participant community views on benefits and harms. The study is part of an ethics research programme at Kilifi in collaboration with the Ethox Centre.

Vicki will be conducting a qualitative study of the social and ethical implications of research-based and diagnostic SCD screening in Kenya, aiming to provide evidence to support the development of recommendations for SCD and other genetic screening programmes in this and other developing countries. Sickle cell disease (SCD) is an inherited disorder with a high burden of morbidity and mortality in Africa for which diagnostic screening is practised and predictive screening has been recommended. Associated ethical, legal and social implications (ELSI) of genetic screening, including SCD, are well described globally. However, there is relatively little empirical data from Africa on the social and ethical implications of genetic screening to support planning of service provision." 

Vicki has worked in clinical medicine and general practice in the UK (DCH, MRCGP, DTM&H) after graduating from the University of Liverpool. She spent 3 years working in tropical paediatrics in the Gambia between 1981 and 1984, and moved to Kenya in 1990 to support the clinical research programme at the Kilifi centre, which is part of the Oxford Tropical Network. Since 1994, she has worked on community health issues, including the role of the informal private sector in malaria control, and more recently on the role of community engagement in strengthening ethical practice in international biomedical research