Vina Vaswani
Vina Short bio for GFBR
With background in Forensic Medicine and cultivated knowledge and skills in bioethics, research ethics through Erasmus Mundus Program in Europe and PhD from Dublin City University, I believe in being a lifelong learner, so as to be a good teacher-leader. As a founder and Director of the Centre for Ethics, I started the first Postgraduate Diploma in Bioethics and Medical Ethics, and soon followed it up with Postgraduate Diploma in Clinical Ethics (collaboration with Johannes Gutenberg University, Germany). I am Program Director of the Yenepoya University-Fogarty International Center for Research Ethics Master’s Program for India, supported by NIH Grant (1R25TW010305). The two PG Diplomas and Masters were the first bioethics, clinical ethics and research ethics academic programs in India. Following the tragic Mangalore air crash, I underwent training in South Korea (National Forensic Services) and in Central Institute of Forensic Sciences Bangkok, Thailand to start the first-in-India PG Diploma in Forensic Anthropology and Odontology in collaboration with Equipo Argentino de Anthropologia Forense, Argentina with focus on Disaster Victim Identification in India. My PhD research has been in Ethics of Forensic Medicine in Disasters where I have used the grounded theory approach to explicate ethical principles applicable to the handling of dead bodies during forensic services. In 2018, I was awarded the GFBR travel fellowship to Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics to develop a white paper of “Ethical Issues with Controlled Human Infection Model Studies in India” under the mentorship of Profs Jeffrey Kahn and Joseph Ali. Centre has co-hosted National Bioethics Conference in India along with the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics in 2020. Being the first lady in Forensic Medicine in the state of Karnataka, I have been a consultant and helped develop” Sexual Assault Forensic Evidence KIT” (SAFE KIT) with an NGO Centre for Health and Allied Themes (CEHAT). I am a member of INTERPOL advisory on working group on Forensic Pathology and Anthropology and attended INTERPOL Conferences. Was on the Advisory and drafting committee of ICMR Policy Statement for the Ethical Conduct of Controlled Human Infection Studies (CHIS) in India: Indian Council of Medical Research, New Delhi; 2023