KMU-ORIC organized two day workshop on Research Ethics

Khyber Medical University (KMU) Peshawar, Office of Research, Innovation & Commercialization (ORIC) organized a two day workshop on “Research Ethics" in collaboration with the Centre of Biomedical Ethics and Culture (CBEC), Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation, Karachi. CBEC Chairperson Prof. Farhat Moazam, Prof. Aamir  Jafarey, Prof. Bushra Sherazi were the key speakers of the workshop, where as Registrar Prof. Dr. Muhammad Saleem Gandapur, Prof. Dr. Jawad Ahmad and Director KMU-ORIC Dr. Zohaib Khan besides heads of different institutes, faculty and a large number of students were also present in the inaugural session.

Speakers said ethics are broadly the set of rules, written and unwritten, that govern our expectations of our own and others’ behavior, where as the concept of  bio ethics though gradually taking roots in Pakistani institutions but it still faces several daunting challenges.

They said that lack of monitoring and interference from institutional hierarchy, and an inconsistent application of the ethical review process are some of the factors affecting the credibility of medical research in the country. In order to make the research process meaningful, institutional leadership has to be sincere in its efforts to constitute independent bioethics committees which are allowed to function without hindrance, they added.

While addressing the participants, the speakers said in the absence of a proper system for ethical clearance, local researchers seeking international funding face problems in getting the required ethical clearance for their projects. They emphasized that to protect the people from harm and exploitation in the name of research, every medical institution of the country needs to develop standards, processes and guidelines for scrutiny of the ethical aspect of all health research being undertaken within the country.

Speakers said that advances in research and medical sciences lead to new complexes and ethical issues which gave way to emergence of contemporary bioethics in the last century. In the modern era a deep concern prevails at all levels of society about science and research but bioethics is lacking that importance, however it needs more attention from the relevant circles.