The role of research ethics committees (RECs) is currently strained by increases in the number of protocols that are in need of review, the scientific and funding complexities of the protocols, and a lack of clear standards for ethics assessment. This commentary describes the significance of these strains and calls for clarification of reviewer accountability. To maintain or, in many cases, to ...

To counter the lack of corporate accountability of the agrochemical industry for the damage caused by its perpetuation of the use of harmful chemical pesticides, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund staff in June 2002 brought together concerned scientists, lawyers, socially responsible investment professionals, and sustainable agriculture advocates at their Pocantico Conference Center. The group's obj...

This study aimed to discover to what extent ethical issues are considered in the reimbursement decision process based on health technology assessment (HTA) in Korea, especially for oncology medications. Public summary documents (PSDs) published by the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) were analyzed for empirical and normative factors. For external comparison, PSDs presented ...

As information becomes a critical commodity in modern society, the issue is raised whether the entities that manage access to information, that are tools for public discourse and democracy, should be accountable to the public. The Internet has transformed how we communicate, and search engines have emerged as managers of information, organizing and categorizing content in a coherent, accessible...

We present an encompassing research endeavour on the public accountability of new modes of governance in Europe. The aim of this project is to measure the salience, tonality and framing of regulatory bodies and public interest organisations in newspaper coverage and parliamentary debates over the last 15 years. In order to achieve this, we use language technology which is still underused in pol...

Calls for greater public accountability for graduate medical education (GME) outcomes continue to come from a broad array of stakeholders. Creation of ways to measure accountability requires a clear understanding of the domains of GME outcomes and the creation of specific measures that are reliable and accurate and do not create an undue measurement burden. Three domains of outcomes are necessa...

The recent emphasis on preparedness has created heightened expectations and has raised questions about the extent to which U.S. public health systems have evolved in recent years. This paper describes how public health preparedness is transforming public health agencies. Key signs of change include new partnerships, changes in the workforce, new technologies, and evolving organizational structu...

It is unnecessary and counterproductive to sacrifice basic human rights to respond to bioterrorism. Constructive public health legislation, which must be federal, cannot be carefully drafted under panic conditions. When it is, like the "model act," it will predictably rely on broad, arbitrary state authority exercised without public accountability. Public health should resist reverting to its n...

The regulation of government information publicity has been implemented for more than seven years, the effect is not good. The administrative accountability system has failed to play its proper oversight role. Currently, this system has the difficulties of ineffective work of government information publicity, the poor effect of the external accountability and limited cases caused by the governm...