Staff Profiles

PhD in Medicine (Bioethics)

Masters of Social Science degree (Health Research Ethics)

Dimpho Ralefala holds a PhD in Medicine, specialising in Bioethics from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. She also holds a Masters of Social Science degree in Health Research Ethics (2017) from the University of KwaZulu Natal in South Africa, and has participated in several bioethics training initiatives including the year-long Fogarty African Bioethics Training Programme at Johns Hopkins University, USA (2010), and a UNESCO Ethics Teacher Training Course (2017).

She is an Assistant Director for Research Ethics at the Office of Research and Development, University of Botswana and has over 10 years’ of working in Research Ethics administration at the University. She serves as a member of the Ethics Working Group of the Human Heredity for Health in Africa (H3Africa) Consortium, African Research Integrity Network and she is a founding member of the African Bioethics Consortium. In 2017, she received an award in Professional Excellence in Research Management from the South African Department of Science and Technology in partnership with the Southern African Research Management Association.

Her research interests are on ethical issues in genomic research, informed consent, children research as well as operations of institutional review boards.

Research Ethics

Public Health Ethics

Research Integrity

Ethical issues in genomic research, informed consent, children research as well as operations of institutional review boards.

1. Ralefala, D., Kasule, M., Matshabane, O. P., Wonkam, A., Matshaba, M., & de Vries, J. (2021). Participants’ Preferences and Reasons for Wanting Feedback of Individual Genetic Research Results From an HIV-TB Genomic Study: A Case Study From Botswana. Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics, 16(5), 525-536.
2. Ralefala, D., Kasule, M., Wonkam, A., Matshaba, M., & de Vries, J. (2021). Should Feedback of Individual Results be Integrated into the Consent Process in African Genomics? Participants’ Views from an HIV-TB Genomics Research Project in Botswana. AJOB Empirical Bioethics, 1-9.
3. Ralefala, D., Kasule, M., Wonkam, A., Matshaba, M., & de Vries, J. (2020). Do solidarity and reciprocity obligations compel African researchers to feedback individual genetic results in genomics research?. BMC medical ethics, 21(1), 1-11.

For more publications, see: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9074-0405