Responsibility for ancillary care in clinical trials
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《英国医生杂志》
EDITOR—Belsky and Richardson highlight an important issue of ancillary care in the conduct of research trials and
propose a potentially useful framework for dealing with the ethical problems raised.1 What seems to be missing,
however, is an exploration of the issue from the participants' perspective. It may be clear to the researcher that
entrustment is partial. Participants may, however, believe (rightly or wrongly) that by agreeing to participate,
they are fully entrusting the researcher with responsibility for their wellbeing.
A need may therefore arise to delineate the limits of entrustment clearly in the process of obtaining consent.
Whether this is practical or feasible is uncertain, but it would be useful and interesting to know what
participants think they are entrusting to researchers when they agree to participate in a trial.
Ike Anya, specialist registrar in public health medicine
Bristol North Primary Care Trust, Bristol BS2 8EE ikechuku.anya@lshtm.ac.uk
Competing interests: None declared.
References
Belsky L, Richardson HS. Medical researchers' ancillary clinical care responsibilities. BMJ 2004;328: 1494
propose a potentially useful framework for dealing with the ethical problems raised.1 What seems to be missing,
however, is an exploration of the issue from the participants' perspective. It may be clear to the researcher that
entrustment is partial. Participants may, however, believe (rightly or wrongly) that by agreeing to participate,
they are fully entrusting the researcher with responsibility for their wellbeing.
A need may therefore arise to delineate the limits of entrustment clearly in the process of obtaining consent.
Whether this is practical or feasible is uncertain, but it would be useful and interesting to know what
participants think they are entrusting to researchers when they agree to participate in a trial.
Ike Anya, specialist registrar in public health medicine
Bristol North Primary Care Trust, Bristol BS2 8EE ikechuku.anya@lshtm.ac.uk
Competing interests: None declared.
References
Belsky L, Richardson HS. Medical researchers' ancillary clinical care responsibilities. BMJ 2004;328: 1494