Emphasis on ethics

General Article
July 17, 2003

Research-ethics committee seeks to enhance procedures and improve skills in ethical problem solving

By MELINDA YOUNG

You've been asked to review a grant and you suspect that it's been plagiarized. What do you do?

You've just transferred to the center from a local biotech company. Can you bring just a small portion of your previous work with you?

Numerous colleagues contributed to the journal article you're publishing, but you can't possibly list everyone as an author. Whom do you include?

Ethical decision-making is a requirement for many research scientists, yet addressing scenarios like these often proves challenging.

"While we all think we've got the integrity to do the right thing, so many situations arise that are more complicated than we expect," said Dr. Barb Trask, director of the Human Biology Division.

That's why it's vital that researchers new to the field ? postdocs, clinical fellows and grad students ? are properly prepared to answer both challenging and sometimes seemingly minor ethical questions.

To ensure that top-notch educational training on research ethics is available for Fred Hutchinson scientists, Dr. Lee Hartwell, center president and director, appointed a committee of faculty and staff in early 2002 to evaluate existing training resources.

The Research Ethics Training Committee (RETC), headed by Trask, includes faculty from all four scientific divisions and staff from other departments. To begin their work, committee members reviewed reports by the National Academy of Sciences Institution of Medicine, the National Institutes of Health and the Office of Research Integrity and examined practices at the center and research institutions nationwide. The group was charged with assessing what type of training should be provided and required at the center.

UW collaboration

Both Trask and Dr. Wendy Law, a committee member and postdoc in the Science Education Partnership and HutchLab, stressed that teaching new scientists how to practice ethics is just as important as teaching them the techniques of working at the bench.

"Sometimes scientists tend to compartmentalize ethics as just a lecture," Law said. "But ethics are embedded in everything we do."

The committee made several proposals to center leadership to enhance educational and training programs on the responsible conduct of research. One significant proposal ? to step up collaboration with the University of Washington School of Medicine's newly improved ethics training program ? is already underway.

The collaboration kicks off July 22 with a presentation by renowned ethicist Dr. Laurie Zoloth, "Conflicts of Interest: Rules and Desire in Research." The author of Health Care and the Ethics of Encounter: A Jewish Conversation on Social Justice, Zoloth is professor of ethics, humanities and religion at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine. She is also the past president of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities.

Zoloth will be the first lecturer to present at both the annual UW Biomedical Research Integrity lecture series and at Fred Hutchinson. In the past, center scientists relied primarily on the UW for access to lectures on research integrity. While the center will continue to take advantage of the UW series, some lectures will now take place on campus with corresponding faculty-led case study discussion groups. The center and UW will share costs to bring a range of outside experts to both institutions. These efforts will complement the annual center bioethics colloquium organized by postdocs and Dr. Brian Reid of Human Biology and Public Health Sciences Divisions.

The discussion groups will study cases and scenarios specifically relevant to center scientists. Offering the discussion groups on-site to supplement those at the university will allow for additional learning opportunities tailored to specific subjects. Potential topics for discussion groups include mentor/trainee relationships, informed consent and social responsibility in international research.

Ethics oversight commitee

"There are a lot of faculty members, grad students, postdocs and clinical fellows here and at the university who are interested in ethics and recognize its importance to the future of research," said Lee Strucker, the instructional designer who joined the center last year to coordinate the research-ethics training program. "Their dedication has enabled us to put these plans into action quickly."

Other efforts include expanding the pool of reference materials available to new and existing employees. At orientation, new employees will be given more detailed information regarding the responsible conduct of research. The Arnold Digital Library will house more books, videos and general materials regarding research-ethics. The center Web site will also have helpful and informative links on the topic.

The committee further proposed requiring all postdocs, grad students and clinical fellows to undergo training in research ethics during their time at the center. At present, it is only mandatory for students on National Institutes of Health training grants. Specifics regarding how requirements will change are currently being worked out at the division level and will be communicated once they are finalized.

To help facilitate the changes, an oversight committee-consisting of faculty, postdocs and grad students from each division-is being formed. It will provide feedback and guidance to Strucker and Dr. Maxine Linial, investigator in the Basic Sciences Division and liaison to the UW ethics-training program. Charged with designing and implementing the new educational program, both Strucker and Linial will work with the oversight committee to ensure the caliber and efficacy of the ethics-training program. In 2005, the committee will evaluate the program's success and re-examine the center's needs.

"The goal is to develop a program in research ethics that is interesting, thought-provoking and topical," Trask said. "There is no question about how important the ethical conduct of research is to all of us at the center."

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