Investigators and student researchers repeatedly called the IRB at the University of the Incarnate Word, asking the same questions, and IRB reviewers complained of continually seeing the same mistakes. Clearly, it was time to make IRB office system and procedural changes.
Because of the unusual scope of the National Children's Study (NCS), it raises a significant range of ethical issues for its designers and for the IRBs that have been reviewing it at 105 study centers across the United States.
The 1960s obedience experiments of Stanley Milgram have become a hallmark of social behavioral research, as well as a cautionary tale for those involved in human subjects protection.
Researchers at the Institute for Simulation and Training at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, FL, are studying physical interventions used in a virtual world. Their work opens new horizons for rehabilitation clinical care, but also raises new questions for ethics review boards.
As virtual space technology improves, researchers are beginning to study how it can be used to help patients who've suffered traumatic brain injuries or other impairments that require rehabilitation.
