RCIDTA conducts training on basic research ethics

The Regional Committee on Information Dissemination, Training, and Advocacy (RCIDTA) of the Regional Ethics Monitoring Board (REMB) VI conducted a Basic Research Ethics Training (BRET) for Northern Iloilo Polytechnic State College (NIPSC) and Central Philippine State University (CPU), March 28-29.

The training was done in a hybrid setting with 20 participants from NIPSC attending facte-to-face while the rest were present virtually.

Philippine Health Research Ethics Board (PHREB) recognized trainers Dr. Fred Guillergan and Dr. Edna Medez hosted the training and discussed the following topics: Ethics and Research, Defining Research Ethics Principles, Favorable Benefits and Risks Ratio, Preparing an Adequate and Appropriate Informed Consent Process and Form, Selecting Research Subjects Fairly, Protecting Vulnerability in Research, Research during Public Health Emergencies (e.g Pandemic), Qualified Researcher, International and National Guidelines, Institutional Controls, Research Ethics Committee, and Navigating the Ethics Review Process.

In an opening remark from Prof. Gil C. Villegas, NIPSC Ethics and Evaluation Unit Director, he emphasized the importance of BRET especially since they plan to organize their own Research Ethics Committee (REC).

The first day was marked by interactive sessions and small group activities following lectures and take-home assignments while the second day saw subsequent reports of the aforementioned assignments prior to the lectures plus interactive sessions, small group discussions and an open forum following after.

The training concluded with an advocacy campaign for the National Research Council of the Philippines (NRCP) Science and Technology Experts Pool (NSTEP) Visayas where the secretariat encouraged the participants to join the NRCP and submit proposals to NSTEP Visayas.

In closing remarks by RCIDTA chair Prof. Lerma Paris, she says REMB VI will provide strong support and assistance to Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) in establishing their respective RECs and emphasized the need for NIPSC to undergo additional training related to research ethics.

In addition, the institution doesn’t have its draft Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) and documentation as of this writing so Prof. Paris and the resources persons recommend that the NIPSC undertake Good Research Practice (GRP) training sometime this April or May.

Mo0reover, it was recommended that the training was to be conducted in one setup and avoid hybrid setups to effectively facilitate discussions and group activities.