First meeting of the new CIOMS Working Group on research ethics in Geneva

At its 78th Executive Committee Meeting in November 2011 CIOMS decided to initiate a review procedure of its GLs on Ethics in Biomedical Research from 2002. The guideline is globally distributed and widely used.

The first meeting of the new CIOMS Working Group on research ethics was held 4-5 September 2012 in Geneva.

Considering changes in the field of research and developments within research ethics and in order to provide proper guidance to the users of the CIOMS guidelines, they should be up to date and reflect the current state of the art in research ethics.

Many new points taken on board in the epidemiological guidelines of CIOMs published 2009 need also to be included in revised CIOMS guidelines.  These include: (1) conflict of interest; (2) research using the Internet; and (3) epidemiological research close to or overlapping with "biomedical".

In addition, the revision of the Declaration of Helsinki together with the changes in other relevant documents do constitute a compelling reason for a revision.