Dalhousie Collaboration

Capital Health Ethics Support is uniquely affiliated with the Department of Bioethics of Dalhousie University’s Faculty of Medicine.

In the process of establishing CHES in 2003, two Bioethics Department faculty members, Drs. Christy Simpson and Jeff Kirby, worked closely with relevant stakeholders and the Vice President of Planning and Performance to develop and implement the innovative CHES Model for delivery of comprehensive ethics support to the Capital Health community.

The Department of Bioethics is intensely engaged with all of Capital Health’s integrated ethics support activities. Christy chairs the CHES co-ordinators group, is a member of Organizational Ethics and is the interim co-ordinator of Policy Developmet and Review. Jeff and Christy are actively engaged in clinical and organizational ethics consultations. They help build Capital Health’s ethics capacity through these consultations and their participation in multiple ethics education and policy development activities.

Christy and Jeff (along with other members of the co-ordinators Group) regularly meet with the Vice President of People (CHES’ portfolio) and Capital Health’s President and CEO and Christy reports in-person (with the co-ordinator of Organizational Ethics) to the Quality and Safety Committee of the Board of Directors. Jeff and Christy participate in innovative research activities related to CHES’ activities and regularly publish their findings in peer-reviewed journals. They are engaged in the planning for and regular operations of, the Nova Scotia Health Ethics Network of which both Capital Health and Dalhousie University are founding collaborating partners.