Patient consent to research not always necessary, bioethicists say

Under the right conditions, full informed consent is not ethically required for some types of health research, according to a commentary from leading bioethics experts. The position is a considerable break from ethics principles that have guided research ethics and regulation for decades. The commentary addresses two concepts generating debate in the healthcare and bioethics fields: the idea of learning healthcare systems, and randomized comparative effectiveness research, in which patients are randomly assigned to different, widely used treatments for their condition. Read More