User:Heylizzie/sandbox

Analogous to clinical ethics consultation, Research Ethics Consultation (REC) describes a formal way for researchers to solicit and receive expert ethical guidance related to biomedical research. The first REC service was at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center in 1997. Today, most REC services are found at academic institutions, and the majority of current services were originally launched in response to the 2006 NIH Clinical and Translational Science Award program, as applicants to that program were required to have procedures in place to address ethical concerns raised by their research.

While still a young discipline with no explicit standards, individuals serving as research ethics consultants are expected to be familiar with research ethics and ethical analysis; knowledgeable about the applicable regulations, laws, and policies; and ideally also have some biomedical research experience and scientific expertise.

REC is distinct from related services, such as those of Institutional Review Boards, in that it is typically available at any point during a study (planning, conducting, interpreting, or disseminating results), and can relate to any ethical question. While little is known about the range and distribution of topics put forth for REC, such services may be particularly important and useful for studies of known regulatory and ethical uncertainty (e.g. assessment of minimal risk in pediatric studies) and frontier research for which there is little if any regulation or expert consensus. The recommendations that result from the consultation are non-binding, meaning that the researcher may choose to follow the recommendation, or to pursue a different approach.

Institutional REC Websites (United States):
Harvard University

Indiana University

Johns Hopkins

Mayo Clinic

Medical University of South Carolina

Mount Sinai School of Medicine

National Institutes of Health

Ohio State University

Stanford University

University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences

University of California Irvine

University of California San Diego

University of California San Francisco

University of Chicago

University of Colorado Denver

University of Connecticut

University of Florida

University of Illinois, Chicago

University of Iowa

University of Kentucky

University of Miami

University of Minnesota

University of New Mexico

or http://bioethics.unc.edu/consultation/ University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

University of Pennsylvania

University of Pittsburgh

University of Rochester Medical Center

University of Southern California

University of Texas Medical Branch

University of Texas San Antonio

University of Washington/ITHS

Washington University

Wayne State University

Weill Cornell Medical College