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Ethic committees need to monitor trials to ensure they comply with what has been approved. One of the great changes to medical research since the horrible abuses in World War 2 concentration camps, has been the development of a code of ethics for human research and the creation of ethics committees. These are groups of people appointed by institutions to vet project proposals for their compliance with principles such as maintaining safety and ensuring that participants are fully informed about the study and any known risks they may be exposed to. But it's one thing approving what researchers say they're going to do and it's another what actually gets done once the research is underway. A survey performed by workers at Monash Medical School in Melbourne has found that a significant proportion of researchers have failed to take properly informed consent and that potential participants have found difficulty understanding the material they've been given to read and many end up trusting the researcher to do the right thing. What seems to be needed from ethics committees is a higher priority given to monitoring studies in progress to make sure that what's approved, actually happens.
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