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Study says schools often stray from set guidelines; Bioterrorism funding up, clinical relevance goal.
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Institutional and individual conflicts of interest perhaps always will plague human subjects research. Until there are uniform rules that all institutions must follow, it will be up to conflict of interest committees and IRBs to make certain that ethical abuses do not result from conflicts of interest that are both unacceptable and preventable.
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The Task Force on Financial Conflicts of Interest in Clinical Research for the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) of Washington, DC, has issued new guidelines. Called Protecting Subjects, Preserving Trust, Promoting Progress II: Principles and Recommendations for Oversight of an Institutions Financial Interests in Human Subjects Research, the October 2002 recommendations contain the following points.
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U.S. human research funding has a global reach. Each year, millions of dollars, both public and private, go to institutions conducting human subjects research outside this country.
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When IRB members and investigators discuss potential risks and benefits, they typically break down the benefits into two categories: individual and societal. But there is a third category that should be considered for some research projects: community.
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As IRBs prepare for their first accreditation surveys or consider the pros and cons of applying for accreditation, some who have gone through it say that preparation can be its own reward.
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As hospitals struggle to comply with aspects of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), one thorny issue is whether patients can be transferred from an ICU of one hospital to the emergency department of another hospital, based on an accepting physicians request.
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Despite measures taken following the resurgence of TB cases in the late 1980s and early 1990s, many health care workers still poorly understand respiratory isolation procedures, says Kevin P. Fennelly, MD, MPH, researcher at the Center for Emerging Pathogens of the New Jersey Medical School in Newark.
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Recent reports from Paris that scores of patients developed aplastic anemia after receiving eprex, the oxygen therapeutic drug known generically as erythropoietin (EPO), have some stateside researchers puzzled.