The Research Ethics Office (REO) was established at the Jewish General Hospital in 1995. It serves as the operational center for the Research Ethics Committee (REC). It is mandatory for the hospital to have these facilities available in order for research involving human participants to take place at our institution. The REO has a regulatory function to ensure that research on humans is conducted in such a way as to be both scientifically and ethically sound, and to comply with the various regulations outlined by governmental and other agencies responsible for overseeing these activities.
However, as noted elsewhere, the REC and REO have a responsibility as well, to educate and facilitate the investigators in their endeavors. We urge all investigators, research nurses, research coordinators and any others involved in research at our institution to use the resources we have available to you.
Hopefully as well, this web site will serve to make your work easier, since available here are not only downloadable forms, schedules (and due dates for submission of protocols) and a list of REC members, but a simplified outline of various important areas in Research Ethics that often present problems to people involved in research.
The Standard Operating Procedures for researchers/research team have been recently been updated, outlining procedures that apply to research at this institution. This will serve as an addendum in effect to the McGill University's Policy on the Ethics Conduct of Research Involving human Subjects, available to all investigators, which was written with input from all the institutions at McGill involved in research on humans.
All sound scientific research is predicated on four fundamental ethical principles:
Respect for the person (Autonomy) (i.e. a person must not be used as a means to attain another's ends)
Doing good (Beneficence)
Avoiding causing harm (Non maleficence) (biomedical ethicists identify at least three kinds of harm in this context: physical harm, psychosocial harm (e.g. invasion of privacy, threats to self- esteem, threat of anxiety, fear, etc.), and a risk of harm of any kind)
Justice (A group of moral obligations for distribution of benefits, risk & costs fairly)
The mandate of the Research Ethics Office (REO) is threefold:
To protect the welfare of the research participant
To foster meaningful research in our institution
To educate those involved in research on humans.
At times, some conflict will arise between the need to protect the participant and the protocol design. In all cases the participant’s well being is foremost. A "breach" of ethics in the area of research with humans is most often unintentional and reflects lack of certain knowledge by the investigator. One naturally assumes that the investigator’s integrity is unquestionable, and so we hope, by offering information and education, that both the participant and investigator will be well served.
Clearly, what is presented here is not a complete and exhaustive presentation, and for more in-depth information, there are other resources to access. However, we are available to help, and as well, you will find links here to sites that we have selected, and which we believe to be the most useful information resources available to you on the web.
We also urge all those who use this site to give us feedback regarding ways in which we may improve this web site and thereby improve our operation. |
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