5
Mar2015

#TBT: Looking Back at the 2005 IACUC Conference

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5 Mar
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With the 2015 Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) Conference rapidly approaching, our staff is busy getting ready to welcome more than 600 professionals from across the fields of animal care and use and research ethics to our hometown, Boston, MA. Amid all our planning, we found ourselves wondering: How has the IACUC Conference changed over the years? The conference is always a great opportunity to learn about the latest insights, best practices, and challenges in the field, but how have those transformed in recent years?

We dug into our archives to look at the 2005 IACUC Conference [...] Read more

3
Mar2015

The Need to Do What is Right: An Interview with Bruce Gordon

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3 Mar
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by Caroline Slymon, executive coordinator

In January, PRIM&R welcomed two new members to its board of directors, including Bruce Gordon, MD. Dr. Gordon is professor of pediatrics in the section of pediatric hematology/oncology and stem cell transplantation at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC). Dr. Gordon has been a member of the UNMC institutional review board (IRB) since 1992, served as chair since 1996, and served as executive chair since 2011. He also organized, and is first chair of, a joint pediatric IRB with the Children's Hospital and Medical Center in Omaha. He has served on a variety of national committees and [...] Read more

27
Feb2015

Research Ethics Roundup: The Return of Psychedelic Research, Organs on a Chip, and More

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27 Feb
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This week’s Research Ethics Roundup highlights ethical issues related to clinical trials studying the psychedelics, as well as moves toward making research more efficient, innovative, and transparent.

The Trip Treatment: Author and journalist Michael Pollan reports on the reemergence of research on psychedelics. In this article from The New Yorker, Pollan shares stories of participants and their experiences in clinical trials studying the psychedelic psilocybin.

Clinical-Trial Specialist Could Be Next FDA Chief: In this article from Nature, journalist Heidi Ledford provides background on Robert Califf, who was recently [...] Read more

26
Feb2015

When is it Unethical Not to Engage in Research?

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26 Feb
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by Anne Meade, MS, PMP, Senior Manager for Website and Social Media  

For its February Question of the Month, PRIM&R’s People & Perspectives  program wants to know why you think collaboration is important.

Need inspiration? One thing to consider is how you approach conflicts of interest at your organization. Can you consider these as opportunities for convergence, as opposed to simply conflicts of interest? Instead of seeing a conflict of interest as a means of discontinuing research, take it as an opportunity to collaborate to execute the research.

For [...] Read more

25
Feb2015

Opting Out: Who’s Protecting Human Research Subjects Online?

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25 Feb
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by Anita Pascoe, MS, CIP, project coordinator at Intermountain Healthcare

Time has flown by since December’s 2014 AER Conference. The holidays came and went, and, believe it or not, spring has announced its extremely premature arrival here in Salt Lake City. Two months post-conference, I am, however, still contemplating several of the key themes discussed during the four days in Baltimore. Topping my list of memorable conference moments is John Wilbanks’ keynote address, which hit home for me on a personal as well as a professional level.
Wilbanks noted that the nature of our global research enterprise has forever been altered because of the [...] Read more

18
Feb2015

The Persistence Of Community

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18 Feb
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by Michael (Mike) Kraten, PhD, CPA, IRB chair at Providence College

As the chair of our college's institutional review board (IRB), you can only imagine how frequently I am asked questions about the 45 CFR Part 46 federal regulations regarding the requirements of human subjects research.
What types of questions? For instance:

  • I'm not sure whether my study is contributing to "generalizable knowledge." How can I tell whether it's doing so?
  • How can I possibly know whether I'm potentially damaging someone's "financial standing, employability, or reputation" with my work?
  • When does a "practicable" study become impracticable?

These questions, though tricky, are certainly not impossible to answer. [...] Read more