Abha Saxena ([email protected])

Dr Abha Saxena, MD, has been the Coordinator of the Global Health Ethics Unit of the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland and has served with the WHO for 18 years. In that role, she chaired the Research Ethics Review Committee and led the Department of Ethics and Social Determinants (ESD) of WHO. Much of her work involved advising low and middle income countries about the ethics of resource allocation in addressing vector-borne diseases, aging, and other current medical and public health issues.

Dr. Saxena was educated and trained in India as an anaesthesiologist. For twenty years she practiced medicine actively in hospital and community-based research in India. She also was a faculty member and Professor at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India (AIIMS), which was founded in 1956.

In 2001, she joined the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, Since 2002, Abha Saxena, MD, has been managing the WHO Research Ethics Review Committee. At WHO, in addition to running a dynamic research ethics committee, she conducted short training programs in research ethics not only for WHO staff, but also in several African and Asian countries, using many of the case studies that were included in the Casebook on Ethical Issues in International Health Research, which has been translated into at least five languages. She retired as Director and Coordinator of WHO’s Global Health Ethics Unit.