December Newsletter

Join us on March 29-30, 2023 in Knoxville, Tennessee for our next Research Community Forum (RCF)!

Registration is now open for our upcoming RCF with East Tennessee State University, Oak Ridge Associated Universities, and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville! This two- day event offers a comprehensive overview of the regulatory and ethical considerations for conducting human subjects research using emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, biometrics, and mobile health technology. Keynote address will be delivered by Professor Renée Cummings, criminal psychologist, ethicist, and specialist in therapeutic jurisprudence.

Click here for the event agenda and location details!

New Luminaries Lecture Series videos available now!

Click here to check out the latest videos on our Luminaries Lecture Series page! These videos cover topics related to justice, ethics, equity, and more!

1. Approaches to New Challenges in IRB Review

   In this video, the speaker introduced resources and tools developed by the MRCT Center to assist IRBs and HRPPs in their work towards promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion; health literacy; participant payment; and the return of research results.

2. Understanding the Role of IRBs in Promoting Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice in Human Subjects Research

   In this video, speakers discussed how the IRB review process can incorporate concrete expectations for promoting equity and justice and offered practical solutions that can be implemented within the HRPP offices to ensure excellence in human subjects research.

   Both presentations were delivered at the OHRP Research Community Forum co- sponsored with the Indiana University Office of Research Compliance in September 2022.

OHRP commemorates the passing away of Dr. Charles McCarthy, Former Director of the Office for Protection from Research Risks

OHRP wishes to inform the human research subjects community that Charles (Charlie) Raymond McCarthy, Ph.D., past Director of the predecessor office to the Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP), passed away on October 14, 2022, in Richmond, Virginia. He was 96 years old. Dr. McCarthy co-wrote the first version of the regulations for the protection of human subjects in research in 1974, helped to draft the language of the National Research Act, and served as the Director of the Office for Protection from Research Risks from 1978 until 1992. As he said in testimony in 2001, “Education and persuasion were then [before the 1974 regulations] and remain today the most effective tools of policy implementation.” He was smart, diplomatic, creative, and good hearted.
He will be missed.

Click here to read OHRP’s commemoration piece