Competence of ethics committees in patient protection in clinical research.

ABSTRACT

Research Ethics Committees (RECs) are responsible for the protection of patients' rights and wellbeing. In this paper, we describe the findings of a survey of ethics committee members in a south Indian state. 29 members of 11 RECs responded to a questionnaire of 56 questions on their knowledge of and attitudes towards ethics review and the practices of the RECs to which they belonged.