Researchers call for streamlined safety reporting

by Anne Crawford

The Department of Anaesthesia and Perioperative Medicine at the Alfred and Monash University conducts large, independent Phase IV clinical trials to test the efficacy and safety of commonly used drugs. These ‘investigator-instigated’ or ‘public good’ trials are pragmatic, low-cost and carried out independently of drug companies.

As part of the trials, researchers report adverse events (AEs) and serious adverse events (SAEs). But the department’s researchers say ever-increasing and complex requirements from sponsors and ethics committees to report AEs and SAEs are duplicating reporting, thereby burdening researchers and causing a decrease in the uptake of research.

Ethics process for weight loss surgery data needs slimming

by Anne Crawford

Ethics process for weight loss surgery data needs overhaul, say Monash researchers.

Monash scientists and clinicians setting up an Australia-wide clinical quality registry for bariatric surgery have called for a more streamlined national ethics review process to oversee data collection and retention.

Odd spot: When data gets creepy - the secrets we don’t realise we’re giving away

Ben Goldacre says that we all worry about digital spies stealing our data – and now even the things we thought we were happy to share are being used in ways we don’t like.

Why aren’t we making more of a fuss? Because not really understanding the technology, we have few sound intuitions into what is safe and what is flimsy when it comes to securing our digital lives – let alone what is ethical and what is creepy. See Ben Goldacre's entire essay.

See also

• The Roast ABC TV 2 July 2014 critique of Facebook's ethics violations, at timepoint 7.30.
• Did Facebook's experiment violate ethics? edition.cnn.com/2014/07/02/opinion/klitzman-facebook-experiment/

Medical ethics of stroke intervention: Prof Paul Komesaroff on SBS Insight 8 Oct 2013

When a person is affected by stroke, sometimes they are too disabled to consent to medical intervention. Sometimes the best evidence for medical intervention is that there is a chance that further injury may result directly from the intervention. What are the ethics of consenting on their behalf? Or obtaining their consent if they are conscious and aware, under very trying circumstances? Professor Paul Komesaroff, an invited guest for the SBS program 'Strokes', broadcast 8 October 2013, speaks to the question.

Reconcile the conflict at source and there will be no need for boats

Professor Paul Komesaroff, Centre for Ethics in Medicine and Society, said we need a better approach to dealing with asylum seekers, namely, to stop the problem at source by reconciling the conflict causing the exodus in the first place. For us not to address this is morally and financially exorbitantly expensive.