Profession
JCAHO, NCQA group educates clinical research patients
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted June 13, 2005
The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations and the National Committee for Quality Assurance are actively supporting an effort to educate people considering participating in clinical research trials. Through the Partnership for Human Research Protection, the national campaign centers around a new brochure on the risks and benefits involved.
The brochure, "What You Should Know About Research Studies," provides facts about how clinical trials are conducted and gives people some questions to ask their doctors or the researchers conducting the clinical trial, for example, "Why is this experiment being conducted?" "Can I stop participating in the study if I change my mind?" and, "Who stands to benefit financially from the results of this study?"
The brochure will be distributed to PHRP-accredited organizations via the Web and through JCAHO-accredited hospitals.
The PHRP is a collaboration between JCAHO and NCQA that provides a national set of standards and a voluntary oversight process to protect patients participating in clinical trials and other research activities.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2005/06/13/prbf0613.htm.
