Ethics Literacy and "Ethics University": Two Intertwined Models for Public Involvement and Empowerment in Bioethics.

Background Informing lay citizens about complex health-related issues and their related ethical, legal, and social aspects (ELSA) is one important component of democratic health care/research governance. Public information activities may be especially valuable when they are used in multi-staged processes that also include elements of information and deliberation. Objectives This paper presents a new model for a public involvement activity on ELSA (Ethics University) and evaluation data for a pilot event. Methods The Ethics University is structurally based on the “patient university,” an already established institution in some German medical schools, and the newly developed concept of “ethic…