My understanding is that the use of any patient material for a research
project requires the approval of the local Research Ethics
Committee.Depending upon the nature of the project,the potential
implications of the results,and the feasibility of obtaining informed
consent,the LREC then will advise on whether such consent is necessary.
This has to be seen as an interim position,until some form of generic
consent on the use of surplus tissue/body fluids is obtained from patients
when they give consent on admission to hospital.At present, some hospitals
have introduced local generic consent forms in advance of a nationally
agreed consent form - such forms,and the limits within which they operate
must be agreed with local RECs.There will be separate issues relating to
the use of surplus specimens from GPs/outpatients, where some form of
withdrawal of consent, rather than active provision of consent may be
necessary.
Alan Shenkin
--On 23 July 2001 10:55 +0100 Mohammad Al-Jubouri <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> Dear list members
>
> It is a normal practice to use surplus blood samples
> from patients unaffected by the disease, for the
> construction of reference values, without first having
> their consent. While this is accepatable in routine
> clinical work, what is the position with regard to
> using surplus blood samples in research projects that
> may lead to the use of a certain analyte as a routine
> blood test? Do we need to get patients consent for
> this? Unfortunately the recently published RCPath
> transitional guidelines for handling surplus material
> from human biological samples, speaks only of
> histopathological tissues. I would be grateful for
> your opinion regarding this matter, do we need a
> consent?
>
> Mohammad
>
> =====
> Dr. M A Al-Jubouri
> Consultant Chemical Pathologist
> Whiston Hospital
> Prescot
> Merseyside L35 5DR
> UK
>
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