|
|
Abstract
How ethical are our studies – an examination of the built in provisions for ethical issues in field research studies
R. Gopal
Issues: Umpteen small and major field studies and interventions are being carried out in the areas pertaining to prevention of HIV/AIDS and provision of care, support and treatment of people living with HIV/AIDS at all levels.
Description: Reviews, evaluations and impact assessment are a must to ensure that the activities undertaken for the containment of HIV/AIDS epidemic have been effective and the outputs and outcome are in accordance with the expectations of the evaluators/stakeholders necessitating the need of such useful studies. In spite of the best intentions, the designing of the studies looks into the mandatory requirement of screening by an ‘Ethics Committee’ which has become more to fulfill the mandate of the funding organization rather to look into the relevant so as to ensure built in mechanism to safeguard the dignity and rights of the clients/subjects/patients/participating volunteers of such studies. The availability of contract research organisations and the outsourcing of such initiatives make it imperative to guarantee inherent ways to obviate any such violations.
Lessons learned: In view of the plethora of interventions and evaluations it is pertinent to ensure that the ethical issues are addressed in the letter and spirit of the mandate of the implementers. The methodologies of the design of the study and intervention are examined through interactions with the implementing partners.
Ethical issues examined through a critical analysis of two illustrative interventions/studies viz.
(1) impact assessment of the Physicians’ Training Initiative (PTI) and
(2) Provider initiated testing and counselling for all as a universal strategy, from a rights perspective-pertaining to informed consent and confidentiality.
Next steps: The critique examines them and recommends the development of an ‘ethics scan’ to scrutinize all the proposed studies through an ethics lens which must be available with the State AIDS Control Societies, implementing partners (NGOs and CBOs) and the research organizations involved in such studies.
AIDS 2008 - XVII International AIDS Conference
Abstract no.
CDE0185
Suggested Citation
" R. Gopal
How ethical are our studies – an examination of the built in provisions for ethical issues in field research studies.
:
AIDS 2008 - XVII International AIDS Conference:
Abstract no.
CDE0185"
|
|
|