Skip to main content

Consent Forms and Procedures

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Principles and Practice of Clinical Trials

Abstract

Obtaining the informed consent of a participant is a prerequisite for enrollment in a clinical trial. In the United States, federal regulations provide the framework for establishing informed consent with additional protections for persons considered vulnerable due to incarceration, illiteracy, or other condition. Investigators are tasked with providing sufficient information about the research to satisfy the ethical and regulatory requirements while communicating it in a manner that maximizes the participant’s ability to make an informed decision regarding study enrollment. There are clinical trial design features that are essential to include in the consent form with care to describe topics such as randomization, allocation ratio, and masking in a manner understood by the lay public. The informed consent discussion should continue throughout the course of the trial as informally reaffirming the participant’s willingness to continue participation and reconsenting them when there are significant changes to the study protocol are important considerations for providing truly informed consent.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ann-Margret Ervin .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Section Editor information

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Ervin, AM., Cobb Pettit, J.B. (2020). Consent Forms and Procedures. In: Piantadosi, S., Meinert, C. (eds) Principles and Practice of Clinical Trials. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52677-5_46-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52677-5_46-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-52677-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-52677-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference MathematicsReference Module Computer Science and Engineering

Publish with us

Policies and ethics