Research bureaucracy in the United Kingdom: Time has come to face research governance

doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7466.623-c

BMJ 2004;329:623-624 (11 September), doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7466.623-c

Letter

Research bureaucracy in the United Kingdom

Time has come to face research governance

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

EDITOR—I am concerned that researchers such as Jones andBamford believe that, having gained research ethics and trustapprovals for their work, they are then free to change the protocoland the conduct of the study in whatever manner they chooseto fit with any hypotheses that emerge as the research progresses.¹

Having recognised that the original proposal required theseapprovals before the research started, to ask patients personalquestions about social contacts, relationships, family, andemployment is clearly emotive. Judgments about whether thesequestions are acceptable in the context of the research shouldtherefore be left to the ethics committees, not to individualresearchers, to decide.

Other bodies, such as ethics and the governance team on behalfof the trust, must be aware of the exact nature of the interventionbeing applied to the participants, whether in the form of aquestionnaire or a new drug. This . . . [Full text of this article]

Tracy M Elliott, research manager

Sheffield Children's NHS Trust, Western Bank, Sheffield S10 2TH tracy.elliott@sch.nhs.uk