Open AccessUnderstanding Bureaucracy in Health Science Ethics: Toward a Better Institutional Review Board
Author(s) -
Barry Bozeman,
Catherine P. Slade,
Paul Hirsch
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
american journal of public health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.284
H-Index - 264
eISSN - 1541-0048
pISSN - 0090-0036
DOI - 10.2105/ajph.2008.152389
Subject(s) - institutional review board , bureaucracy , research ethics , incentive , globalization , political science , medical research , engineering ethics , medicine , public relations , law , psychiatry , economics , pathology , politics , microeconomics , engineering
Research involving human participants continues to grow dramatically, fueled by advances in medical technology, globalization of research, and financial and professional incentives. This creates increasing opportunities for ethical errors with devastating effects. The typical professional and policy response to calamities involving human participants in research is to layer on more ethical guidelines or strictures. We used a recent case-the Johns Hopkins University/Kennedy Kreiger Institute Lead Paint Study-to examine lessons learned since the Tuskegee Syphilis Study about the role of institutionalized science ethics in the protection of human participants in research. We address the role of the institutional review board as the focal point for policy attention.