Ethics of Biomedical Health Research

A three days workshop was organised by the Institute of Public Health, Obafemi Awolowo University in partnership with New HIV Vaccine and Microbicide Advocacy Society. The training curriculum was accredited by the National Health Research Ethics Committee (NHREC/TR/05/02/2012) and the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria. The theme of the training was ‘Ethics of Biomedical Health Research’. The training came up between the 15th and 17th of February, 2012 at the Institute of Public Health, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. In attendance were 26 participants exclusive of the two facilitators. 18 plenary sessions were taken, which included history and evolution of ethics, principles of research ethics, informed consent, community participation in research, standard of care in research, engaging vulnerable communities, and monitoring of research amongst others. The training used various participatory mechanisms to facilitate learning. These include brainstorming, question and answer sessions, cases studies, mock HREC session, plenary discussions, group work, games and lectures.