A Comparative Analysis Of The Development Of Ethics Committees In The University Of Ghana And The Ghana Health Services

ABSTRACT Background Medical research involving the use of human participants has been on the increase in Ghana over the past decade. Research Ethics Committees (RECs) have the huge responsibility of protecting the safety, rights and welfare of these human participants. This role cannot be taken lightly since there is always the tendency for these human participants to be exploited, or vulnerable groups to be taken advantage of. Ghana has about seven RECs in the country right now. However, very little is known about how or why these Committees came about, their structure and function, and the challenges they face, and this study set out to find these out. A survey was also done to find out the opinions of Ghanaian investigators affiliated with the Ghana Health Service, Navrongo Health Research Center and the Noguchi memorial Institute for Medical Research, on the RECs they use. Methods Semi structured questionnaires were used to collect information on the structure and function of three RECs in Ghana from their respective Administrators: the Ghana Health Service REC, the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research Institutional Review Board (NMIMR IRB), and the Navrongo Health Research Center Institutional Review Board (NHRC IRB). Directors and their Deputies of the various Institutions were also interviewed on the histories of these RECs. Two checklists were used, one on Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and the other on Minutes, for documented reviews of their operations. Twenty-nine Ghanaian Investigators were also sampled and interviewed on their views on the RECs they use with the aid of a semistructured questionnaire.