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Challenges in the Ethical Review of Research Involving Complementary and Integrative Medicine

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Abstract

Complementary and integrative medicine (CIM) involves using practices outside mainstream Western medicine, often derived from Eastern traditional medicine, and combining those practices with Western medicine. Conducting CIM research that is necessary to determine whether particular interventions are beneficial and safe will involve a set of ethical challenges. Institutional review boards (IRBs), also known as research ethics committees or research ethics boards, are responsible for determining that research studies involving human subjects appropriately address ethical and regulatory concerns inherent to the research. Like other research with human subjects, research involving CIM is subject to ethical review and ongoing oversight by an IRB. IRBs are often challenged by the review of CIM. These challenges include accounting for cultural differences and the interests of competing stakeholders. In this report, we describe these issues that were the focus of a workshop that was part of an international conference held in Seoul, Korea, on April 4, 2015.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. WIRB-Copernicus Group, 202 Carnegie Center, Suite 107, Princeton, NJ, 08540, USA

    Jeffrey A. Cooper MD, MMM & David Borasky MPH

  2. Quorum Review IRB, Seattle, WA, USA

    Stephen Rosenfeld MD, MBA

  3. Berman Institute of Bioethics and Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Jeremy Sugarman MD, MPH, MA

Authors
  1. Jeffrey A. Cooper MD, MMM
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  2. David Borasky MPH
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  3. Stephen Rosenfeld MD, MBA
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  4. Jeremy Sugarman MD, MPH, MA
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jeffrey A. Cooper MD, MMM.

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Cooper, J.A., Borasky, D., Rosenfeld, S. et al. Challenges in the Ethical Review of Research Involving Complementary and Integrative Medicine. Ther Innov Regul Sci 50, 337–341 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1177/2168479015620246

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/2168479015620246

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