In the last years an alternative to traditional research projects conducted with patients has emerged: it is represented by the pairing of different type of disease biobanks specimens with Electronic Health Records (EHRs). Even if informed consent remains one of the most contested issues of biobank policy, other ethical challenges still require careful attention, given that additional issues ar...

A 299 Environmental epidemiology, a well-established sub specialty of epidemiology, is of vital importance in the identification and prevention of environmentally linked morbidity and premature mortality. Perhaps more than most other applied sciences, the discipline of environmental epidemiology faces significant ethical challenges because of the involvement of powerful stake holders whose infl...

I n March 2005, we announced the appointment of an external advisory committee " to advise us on individual cases for which we are concerned about competing interests or broader ethical questions " [1]. Two years on, what has the committee achieved and how has it helped to shape policies at the journal? The committee is a " virtual " one, with seven members in two countries— the United States a...

Our awareness of the requirements for ethical clinical research has increased over the past century. Research ethics committees were set up after the Declaration of Helsinki to review research proposals. Many journals now require a statement that ethical approval has been obtained before they consider a research report for publication. Nevertheless, many published studies do not come up to stan...

The Alberta Research Ethics Community Consensus Initiative (ARECCI) is a unique Canadian initiative that addresses the ethical oversight of two main categories of health-related investigative projects: research and quality improvement (including quality assurance and program evaluation). ARECCI was formed as a result of discussions arising from health regions, health researchers and the Alberta...

Data sharing poses complex ethical questions for data management. Manifold conflicting and shifting values need to be reconciled in pursuing viable data-management policies. For example, how does one make data available in useable form to stakeholders including scientists, governments and businesses worldwide, while assuring confidentiality, satisfying one's research ethics committee, protectin...

This study aimed at identifying characteristics of ethical occurrences related to nursing care in a large private hospital in the city of São Paulo. There were 190 occurrences reported to the hospital's Nursing Ethical Committee (NEC) between 1995 and 2004. Most occurrences caused no damages to the patient, the health institution, the nursing staff or the professional involved. From the total o...

Advances in medicine's ability to assist reproduction in those afflicted with infertility raise numerous ethical questions both for potential recipients of the techniques and for society as a whole. Society must decide what level of resources should be committed to the treatment of infertility in light of the fact that many children are not readily placed in adoptive or foster homes and the inc...