About the Lab
Vasiliki (Vaso) Rahimzadeh (she/her) is an Assistant Professor in the Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy. She investigates the ethical, legal, and social issues of health data sharing across emerging computing environments. The goals of her research are to inform data governance policy and practice which maximizes the scientific value of health data and respects the rights and interest of individuals and communities.
Collaborators
Current Projects
Project Description
The goals of the proposed research address the NHGRI strategic vision of improving how publicly funded genomic repositories measure and report the impacts of their stewardship in novel computing environments. More genomic and related health data are generated than can be securely accessed and shared, preventing scientists’ ability to drive innovations that improve human health. New platforms powered by cloud technologies are transforming how repositories FAIRify data at scale, making data more findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable for otherwise compliant biomedical research. Moving repositories beyond regulatory compliance to responsible stewardship of public data resources means aligning institutional practices for data release with the values and interests of diverse stakeholders (e.g. data producers, users and contributors).
Dr. Rahimzadeh will partner with international data stewards responsible for managing genetically diverse data collections across repositories represented in the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health, H3Africa and the Native BioData Consortium to achieve the following specific aims: (AIM 1) Characterize essential outcomes and develop assessment criteria for genomic data stewardship in the cloud using a modified Delphi study design; Validate a stewardship impact assessment tool with experts in cloud infrastructure design (AIM2A) and pilot test the tool’s implementation with managers across cloud-native repositories (AIM2B).
Publications
Rahimzadeh V. The Ethical Data Practices Framework and Its Implications for Data Privacy Relations between the United States and the European Union. Am J Bioeth. 2023;23(11):29-33.
Project Description
Despite largescale government and private investment in commercializing space travel, it remains too dangerous and too impractical for most civilians.
We are working to fill critical policy gaps that advance The Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH) mission of translating responsible research on commercial space travel by developing an ethical framework for involving civilians in spaceflight research and formalizing an ethics review service for TRISH researchers. This will occur through a new collaborating partnership between TRISH and the Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy (CMEHP) at ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ of Medicine called METEORS (Mission to enhance Ethics Education, Outreach, and Research in Space). Taken together, METEORS advances the TRISH mission by developing tools to enable the ethical translation of cutting-edge biomedical research and technology development and supports education on how to proportionately balance real human risks with tangible benefits of human space exploration missions moving forward.
Funding provided by TRISH’s Space Health Expeditionary Research Projects Assets (SHERPA) program
Publications
Rahimzadeh V, Fogarty J, Caulfield T, et al. Ethically cleared to launch?. Science. 2023;381(6665):1408-1411.