Programs/Research
ICMR Bioethics Unit in collaboration with Good Clinical Practice Alliance (GCPA) is conducting a WHO funded online survey entitled "An International Survey of Ethics Committees (ECs): Challenges and Practices Arising During Public Health Emergencies (PHEs)". The target respondents for the survey are members of ECs in several countries, including all regions of WHO. ICMR Bioethics Unit is conducting this survey in India and seeking information from EC members across the country.
The survey is intended to identify specific ethical values, issues, procedures, and practices that arise regarding the ethics review of COVID-19 research, previous or future PHE research to draft recommendations that would benefit ECs around the world in developing and updating policies. The information gathered will be completely anonymous and will be pooled with the data from other countries thereby ensuring participant confidentiality. In addition, a subset analysis of Indian data will help us to understand challenges faced by ECs in India during PHEs which will guide further policy.
Ethics Committee members who are interested to participate in this survey may write to us at icmr.bioethics@gmail.com.
ICMR Bioethics Unit, NCDIR, Bangalore coordinated this multicentric survey in India which was carried out in 7 member countries of Forum for Ethical Review Committees in the Asian and Western Pacific region (FERCAP). The survey was conducted to identify the elements and the extent of information in ICFs that research participants in biomedical and health research would like to know. The report is published in BMC Medical Ethics.