ELSIcon2022 Paper: ELSI and the New Precision Stewards?

ELSIcon2022 • Paper • May 27, 2022

Sara Watson, Karen Meagher

Advances in pathogen genomics and molecular epidemiology are keeping pace with next generation sequencing translational implications from human genetics. As scientific understanding of pathogen genomics accelerates, the implementation contexts can mirror the ethical, social, and legal implications (ELSI) of clinical translation of human genetics.
This presentation provides an overview of ELSI and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) topics. The key foci from the past decades of human ELSI scholarship are relevant to ethics and AMR including: patient and public understanding of genomics, data governance, clinical translation, and longstanding health disparities due to structural injustice. In contrast, other aspects of AMR involve distinct or heightened ELSI topics including: collective action problems, conflicts between current and future patient interests, the contextual distinctiveness of infection prevention and control, and the normative significance of stewardship.

This overview of ELSI and "precision stewardship" supplies conference attendees with inroads into new potential collaborative opportunities that distinctly advance the field of ELSI scholarship. Attendees are invited to generate discussion of which new forms of multidisciplinary collaboration are needed to support advances in hospital infection prevention and control, stewarding antimicrobials, and advancing patient care for those bearing the burdens of resistant infections.