informed consent Archives

On October 29, the Final NIH Policy for Data Management and Sharing was published. It will require “researchers to prospectively plan for how scientific data will be preserved and shared through submission of a Data Management and Sharing (DMS) Plan” and will apply to any NIH-funded or -conducted research that generates scientific data. It will be effective as of January 25, 2023. The final rule isn’t perfect: there is no mandate to share data, and grantees will need guidance on crucial questions of communicating these complex issues to participants. Nevertheless, the rule represents a positive step toward expanded, responsible sharing of data, which is critical to both good science and just treatment of research subjects. Read more

Are investigators at your institution engaging patient and community partners in research? Some of these partners will need training in human research protections—particularly if they will be responsible for recruiting participants, obtaining informed consent, or collecting data. CIRTification Online is a free web-based human research protections training program developed specifically for community research partners. Read more

A team comprising Holly Taylor of the NIH Clinical Center’s Department of Bioethics; Susan Kornetsky of Boston Children’s Hospital; and Megan Kasimatis Singleton of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and myself recently completed a project examining how, in the absence of federal guidance, institutions are interpreting and applying the key information requirement and, specifically, whether and to what extent they are developing policies, guidance, templates, or other tools to help researchers and IRBs apply this provision of the Common Rule. We undertook this project as part of the Consortium to Advance Effective Research Oversight (AEREO)—a group of leaders in human research oversight, research ethics, and empirical methods dedicated to evaluating and improving the effectiveness of IRBs and HRPPs through empirical research. PRIM&R is pleased to share with the human research protections community the materials collected during this project as a public resource. Read more

Human subjects research has long been plagued by racial inequality. While flagrant abuses have been curtailed, disparities have, unfortunately, persisted. Read more

The current pandemic, like all public health crises, forces us to confront difficult questions about how best to find cures or treatments for a disease that is rapidly taking many lives. Although some may argue that the extreme nature of our current circumstances requires throwing out our prior ethical assumptions, we could not disagree more. Adhering to long-established and widely accepted principles of human research ethics must remain an essential component of our efforts to combat COVID-19. Read more

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