GOOD CLINICAL RESEARCH PRACTICE - WHAT IS IT AND IS IT POSSIBLE IN THE INTENSIVE-CARE UNIT

With the growing quest for answers to vexing dilemmas in critically il l patients, more intensive care units are embarking on clinical resear ch. This places increasing importance on Good Clinical Research Practi ce (GCRP), a set of guidelines drawn up by the Pharmaceutical Industry to assist investigators in conducting ethical, reliable scientific st udies. GCRP is a combination of good basic management skills allied to ethical principles for scientific research. Based on the principles o f the Declaration of Helsinki, it consists of three tenets: patient pr otection (ethics), credible darn (science) and data control. This arti cle describes GCRP specifically, relating it to the intensive care sit uation, illustrating some of the concepts with practical examples, Wit h a minimum of extra time and effort these basic principles can be int egrated as routine into all research projects.