Every regulation has a face behind it

Today I attended the Association of Clinical Research Professionals Southern Wisconsin chapter Fall symposium. The most passionate and engaging speaker of the day was Barbara Davis of The Clinical Research Center of Northwest Florida, Inc. Her topic was the process of consent, a topic that is familiar territory for these types of conferences. But Barbara spoke with the kind of passion that can make any topic interesting. Her point was that informed consent should be a process and a conversation, not just a technical form. She was sincerely emotional when talking about the fact that every regulation we as research professionals have to go through has a face behind it. Every procedure for consent is because of some research atrocity that has happened in the past, whether Nazi doctors experiments on Jews and gypsies or American doctors in the 20th century withholding life-saving syphilis treatments from African American men in the name of research. She reminded the audience that it is the participants that take all the risks of medical research. We are in charge of protecting their rights.

It was refreshing to see the topic presented with such passion.