RESEARCH ETHICS: VULNERABLE & ETHNIC MINORITY GROUPS

1993年的《美国国立卫生研究院振兴法案》要求将妇女和少数民族纳入国家卫生研究院的临床研究。到1994年，国立卫生研究院制定了一套指导方针，规定妇女和少数群体成员及其亚群将被纳入所有由国立卫生研究院资助的涉及人类参与者的生物医学和行为研究项目。 参与收集少数民族人口数据的非少数群体人数有所增加；然而，几乎没有通过发展研究生、专业或继续教育课程来培训研究人员，使他们了解他们所进入的社区。这项申请的目的是开发两个专业级的校园课程，重点是人类研究的参与。 这些课程是为研究生、初级/高级研究人员和对人类参与研究感兴趣并希望获得继续教育学分的社区成员设计的。这两门课程的重点是：(A)弱势人口和(B)特殊人口(少数民族)参与研究的伦理问题。虽然调查人员被要求将女性和少数族裔纳入联邦资助的研究，但很少有继续教育、研究生或专业课程让调查人员准备好应对在这些人群中进行研究时出现的复杂、具有挑战性的负担和责任。弱势群体包括儿童、囚犯、认知障碍者，以及因环境、残疾或疾病而表现出个人权威减退的人。这些课程将为处于研究生涯各个阶段的研究人员提供机会，探讨研究内容的伦理和文化/种族/性别/阶级规范。

The NIH Revitalization Act of 1993 mandated the inclusion of women and ethnic minorities in NIH clinical research studies. By 1994, NIH had developed a set of guidelines which stated that women and members of minority groups and their subpopulations were to be included in all NIH-supported biomedical and behavioral research projects which involved human participants. There has been an increase in the numbers of non-minorities involved in the collection of data in ethnic minority populations; however, there has been little in the way of training through the development of graduate, professional or continuing education courses emerging to educate researchers about the communities they are entering. The aim of this application is to develop two professional level campus-wide courses focused on human research participation. These courses were designed for graduate students, junior/senior level researchers and community members interested in human participant research and wishing to obtain continuing education credit. The focus of the two courses will be ethics of research participation in: (a) vulnerable populations and (b) special populations (ethnic minorities). While investigators are required to include women and ethnic minorities in federally funded studies, few continuing education, graduate or professional courses have prepared investigators to handle the complex, challenging burdens and responsibilities that arise in conducting research in these populations. Vulnerable populations include children, prisoners, the cognitively impaired, and those who exhibit diminished individual authority through circumstances, disability or illness. These courses will provide opportunities for researchers at all stages of their research careers to explore the ethics and cultural/racial/gender/class norms of research elements.