Ramandeep Kaur Brar
Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, India
Title: Assessment of Awareness about Ethics Committee amongst the Research Scholars/Teachers in Government Medical Colleges of Punjab, India
Biography
Biography: Ramandeep Kaur Brar
Abstract
Ethics committee is supposed to play a great role in safe human research. It is mandatory that all research projects related to health sciences with involvement of patients/subjects should be approved by IEC before commencement. The data available reflects the low percentage of awareness amongst the routine project investigator. Being inclined towards medical education only, awareness amongst faculty members of medical colleges towards ethics committee is also expected not up to the mark. Indian Council of Medical Research has launched and funded development of Multidisciplinary Research Unit (MRU), a scheme for igniting research component in various medical colleges of India. Keeping in view the above situation, a study was designed to check the awareness about the composition, review procedure and functioning of IEC amongst the research scholars/teachers in government medical colleges of Punjab. The information was sought in form of a questionnaire from a total of 50 participants. From the study it was observed that only 10% had undergone ICH-GCP training. A few participants (6%) served as member of IEC and demonstrated a very poor knowledge index about IEC. Only 68.5% participants were aware about its composition and majority of respondents (86%) felt that there was a need of training before becoming a member of IEC. From the data it is very clear that there is strong need of training to faculty of medical colleges towards institutional ethical committee. There is a need to inculcate the IEC-ICH guideline in curriculum of post-graduates medical students and medical teachers.