BMJ 2003;326:1039 ( 10 May )

Letters

Difficulties in giving fully informed consent

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR---Willison et el report that most patients would prefer the opportunity to provide consent before anonymised information from their electronic medical records was used for research.1 They point out there are major logistical challenges to obtaining such informed consent, especially in primary care, where ethical concerns prohibit researchers from contacting patients directly.2

Gaining informed consent from each individual in a research study including thousands of patients may fall to general practitioners and practice staff, who already have a heavy workload. The additional resource and financial costs would be considerable. General practitioners are unlikely to agree to do this. Thus primary care research using anonymised electronic data may grind to a halt and one of the advantages of electronic patient records may be lost.

Another difficulty is giving people all the relevant information about a complex issue. The participants in the study seem not to have been given information . . . [Full text of this article]
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Relevant Article

Patients' consent preferences for research uses of information in electronic medical records: interview and survey data
Donald J Willison, Karim Keshavjee, Kalpana Nair, Charlie Goldsmith, and Anne M Holbrook
BMJ 2003 326: 373. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

over-riding others wishes is an abuse of ethical research
susanne stevens
bmj.com, 10 May 2003 [Full text]
Example notice for patients about research
Julia Hippisley-Cox
bmj.com, 1 Jun 2003 [Full text]
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