The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has released a handbook on national ethical guidelines, which is aimed at improving the overall quality of research outcomes while ensuring protection of research participants and responsiveness to the health needs of Indians.
The ICMR has been preparing ethical guidance documents for the conduct and review of biomedical and health research in India since 1980. It was revised in 2000, 2006 and 2017.
The latest document ‘National Ethical Guidelines for Biomedical and Health Research Involving Human Participants’ was released in October 2017.
“In continuation of the detailed guidance, it was felt that there is a need to widely disseminate the document in a simplified manner,” noted a release issued by the medical research council.
Quick reference
The handbook, released earlier this week, was prepared to serve as an easy and quick reference to the detailed rules.
It summarises the 12 sections of the main ethical guidelines, including ethical principles, general ethical issues, responsible conduct of research, ethics committees, and informed consent.
“These guidelines should be followed by all researchers in the conduct of biomedical research and by ethics committees in the review and monitoring of biomedical research so that human participants are protected against any discrimination,” the release noted.
