BALTIMORE, Jan. 19 (UPI) -- New language has been introduced in Baltimore that medical researchers can use to disclose financial conflicts of interest to potential research participants.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins, Duke and Wake Forest universities published the new language in the January edition of IRB: Ethics and Human Research.
"There is near-universal agreement about the need for clinical researchers to disclose financial interests to research participants, but until now there has been little guidance available on exactly how to do it," said principal investigator Jeremy Sugarman, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics.
The new disclosure statements are designed to be used in written materials provided to potential research participants before they give their consent.
"If you are thinking about participating in a clinical research trial, you should understand what you are getting yourself into, and that includes any financial interests involved," said Kevin Weinfurt, deputy director of the Center for Clinical and Genetic Economics at the Duke Clinical Research Institute.
