The Role of Community Advisory Boards: Involving Communities in the Informed Consent Process

TLDR

Ethical research requires informed consent from participants or surrogates, assumes personal autonomy and full understanding of risks and benefits, yet recent lapses in the consent process have been reported. The authors propose using community advisory boards to advise on informed consent and research protocol design and implementation. Community advisory boards would advise on the informed consent process and on the design and implementation of research protocols. Such activities could reduce informed consent lapses, benefiting participants and scientific integrity.

Abstract

Ethical research involving human subjects mandates that individual informed consent be obtained from research participants or from surrogates when participants are not able to consent for themselves. The existing requirements for informed consent assume that all study participants have personal autonomy; fully comprehend the purpose, risks, and benefits of the research; and volunteer for projects that disclose all relevant information. Yet contemporary examples of lapses in the individual informed consent process have been reported. The authors propose the use of community advisory boards, which can facilitate research by providing advice about the informed consent process and the design and implementation of research protocols. These activities could help reduce the number of individual informed consent lapses, benefiting study participants and the scientific integrity of the research in question.