Bioethics workshop - led by experts

Ethics in human experiments

  • Reviews unethical human experimentation in the past that led to the need for international standards of ethics for these experimental study designs
  • Focuses on the Declaration of Helsinki and its core principles as well as the more recent revisions
  • Reviews additional ethical guidelines used in more specific studies such as the pharmaceutical industry and vaccine research 

Research ethics committees (REC)

  • Covers research ethics committees (RECs) and institutional review boards (IRBs)
  • Discusses the composition of these groups and why their diversity is important for research and society
  • Focuses predominantly on what RECs are evaluating in a study, and how to increase the likelihood of proposal approval
  • Reviews when REC approval is necessary, as well as those study designs where it is not needed 

Informed consent

  • Highlights the importance of obtaining informed consent from all participants in human studies
  • Reviews why informed consent is needed for participation in a study and when consent for publication is needed for publishing certain images
  • Discusses how to properly obtain verbal informed consent from certain individuals
  • Discusses using vulnerable persons in human experiments and when to obtain assent in addition to consent

Standards of care and post-trial provisions

  • Defines standard of care both universally and regionally and why this is important for the participants in a study
  • Discusses how to apply these standards of care when designing a clinical trial, to ensure that it is ethical for human participation
  • Discusses post-trial provisions for all participants and how this should be discussed with the study sponsor and participants
  • Emphasises the importance of publishing the study, regardless of the outcomes