Published in:The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics
Joseph Liss, former Legal Fellow at the MRCT Center, David Peloquin, Mark Barnes and Barbara Bierer co-authored “Applying Civil Rights Law to Clinical Research: Title VI’s Equal Access Mandate,” published in The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits federally-funded educational institutions and health care centers from engaging in discrimination “on the ground of race, color, or national origin.” The authors argue that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) “has not used the full arsenal of legal and policy tools at its disposal to push for equal rights” to obligate institutions that receive federal funding for clinical research “to provide equal access to participation in clinical trials to racial and ethnic minority communities.”
Published in: BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies
Sylvia Baedorf Kassis, Sarah A. White, Barbara E. Bierer and others co-authored “Developing and implementing a self-monitoring toolkit for a coordinated multinational randomized acupuncture trial,” published in BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies, which describes a self-monitoring toolkit that was developed and implemented in a coordinated multinational trial that involved sites in China, South Korea, and the U.S. Authors conclude that such a tool “provides a feasible, consistent, and effective way to review the collection and maintenance of data and regulatory documentation for quality assessment in minimal risk clinical research studies and can augment formal study monitoring activities.”
Deborah Zarin, MRCT Center Program Director, co-authored “Approach for reporting master protocol study designs on ClinicalTrials.gov: qualitative analysis,” published in BMJ. The authors describe an approach for reporting master protocol research programs that is consistent with existing good reporting practices and that uses structured information to convey the overall master protocol and design of each substudy.
Dr. Barbara E. Bierer and MRCT Center Program Manager, Laura G. Meloney, co-authored “Strategies to optimize inclusion of women in multi-national clinical trials,” published in Contemporary Clinical Trials. The authors note the persistent complexities in the representation of women in clinical trials, particularly in some therapeutic areas and in certain countries. The article includes approaches and suggestions to consider to address the problem.
MRCT Center Senior Advisors, Luke Gelinas and David Strauss, MRCT Center Faculty Director, Barbara E. Bierer, and others co-authored, “IRBs and the Protection-Inclusion Dilemma: Finding a Balance,” published in The American Journal of Bioethics. The authors address the tension that Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) face “in aiming to both protect potential research participants from harm and include under-represented populations in research” and offer recommendations to support IRB decision-making.
Published in: Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics
Published recently in the Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics, Luke Gelinas, David Strauss, Hayat Ahmed, Barbara Bierer, and others co-authored an article entitled, “Protecting the Vulnerable and Including the Under-Represented: IRB Practices and Attitudes.” A pilot national survey of IRB Chairs was conducted to assess attitudes and practices with regard to protecting the vulnerable and including under-represented groups in research.
