Challenges and proposed solutions in making clinical research on COVID-19 ethical: a status quo analysis across German research ethics committees.

ABSTRACT:

Background

In the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, the biomedical research community's attempt to focus the attention on fighting COVID-19, led to several challenges within the field of research ethics. However, we know little about the practical relevance of these challenges for Research Ethics Committees (RECs).

Methods

We conducted a qualitative survey across all 52 German RECs on the challenges and potential solutions with reviewing proposals for COVID-19 studies. We de-identified the answers and applied thematic text analysis for the extraction and synthesis of challenges and potential solutions that we grouped under established principles for clinical research ethics.

Results

We received an overall response rate of 42%. The 22 responding RECs reported that they

SUBMITTER: Faust A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8287116 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature