Dr. Derrick Aarons, Ethicist with the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), as he discussed the Human Research Protection Framework in the Caribbean, during the IMPACT Justice/CARPHA meeting.
Local and regional participants took part in the IMPACT Justice/CARPHA meeting held at the Radisson Aquatica Resort.
Efforts are on to ensure that research conducted on human subjects across the Caribbean, towards a view of obtaining better health for citizens, is done in a safe and ethical manner.
Dr. Derrick Aarons, Ethicist with the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), served as the first presenter during the IMPACT Justice/CARPHA meeting held to discuss model legislation, to regulate research involving human participants. The regional meeting was held in the Tides Room of the Radisson Aquatica Resort yesterday.
During a break from the morning’s session, which focused on the Human Research Protection Framework in the Caribbean, Dr. Aarons noted the need to safeguard human research participants and he acknowledged that legislation was being drafted, which regional countries could adopt, to ensure the safety of research participants.
“As a part of seeing that safe research is conducted with humans across the Caribbean, the idea is to not only sensitise persons, but to protect human participants. And so, whilst we need Research Ethics Committees to review all proposals to do research, we also need the regulations that will ensure that what is decided is actually carried through. And so we are going to be looking at drafting legislation for all our CARICOM countries, draft legislation that they can adopt, to ensure that there is safety when research is necessary,” Dr. Aarons told The Barbados Advocate.
“We all know that research is necessary to develop human health and good health is needed for human development and development is needed for productivity in all our countries. And so, this is the cornerstone of ensuring that our country is developed,” he added.
“So I will be presenting on the whole Human Subjects Research Regulation Network, that speaks to both proper conduct of research, research oversight by Research Ethics Committees and the research protection that comes through regulations. So that is an overarching idea of what we hope to promote today,” Dr. Aarons indicated. (RSM)