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Research is an essential component of public health emergency preparedness and response. Therefore, it is essential to be able to carry out research as soon as a health emergency begins and to ensure that it is carried out in an ethical manner.
This Pan American Health Organization publication provides direction for strategies and guidelines on modifying ethical oversight processes in emergency situations, ethically monitoring ongoing research in the face of new evidence, and overcoming other ethical challenges that arise when doing research in public health emergencies. It also provides guidance so that the emergency use of unproven interventions outside of a research setting is carried out in an ethical manner. Finally, it includes the lessons learned in the Region of the Americas during the COVID-19 pandemic and recommendations resulting from a regional reflection exercise aimed at improving ethical preparation for conducting research during future health emergencies.
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Previous Publications
- Ethics guidance on issues raised by the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic (March 2020 / Published by PAHO in Spanish)
- Guidance and strategies to streamline ethics review and oversight of COVID-19 related research (April 2020 / Published by PAHO in Spanish)
- Operational guidance and template for the ethics review and oversight of COVID-19-related research (April 2020 / Published by PAHO in Spanish)
- Key criteria for the ethical acceptability of COVID-19 human challenge studies (WHO, May 2020 / Published by PAHO in Spanish)
- Emergency Use of Unproven Interventions Outside of Research. Ethics Guidance for the COVID-19 Pandemic (June 2020 / Published by PAHO in Spanish)
- How Can Research Transparency Be Promoted? Actions for National Health Authorities During the COVID-19 Pandemic (September 2020 / Published by PAHO in Spanish)
- Guidance for ethics oversight of COVID-19 research in response to emerging evidence (November 2020 / Published by PAHO in Spanish)
Regional Dialogues
Challenges and lessons to be learned in Latin America and the Caribbean: Regional dialogues on research ethics during the pandemic (2020-2021)
- Strategies for ethics review and oversight of research during the pandemic
- REC Procedures (No English translation available)
- Social and scientific value, and informed consent
- The perspective of researchers
- The risk-benefit assessment of studies
- What have we learned so far?
Indicators for strengthening national research ethics systems: Series of regional sessions (2021)
- PAHO’s indicators for strengthening national research ethics systems
- Regional assessment using the indicators: Achievements and pending challenges
- Regional assessment of the indicator on research in emergencies: Progress during the pandemic
Catalyzing ethical research in emergencies: Regional dialogues on the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and pending agenda (2022)