The role of community advisory boards: Involving communities in the informed consent process

Ethical research involving human subjects mandates that individual informed consent be obtained from research participants or from surrogates when par ticipants are not able to consent for themselves. The existing requirements for informed consent assume that all study participants have personal auto nomy; fully comprehend the purpose, risks, and benefits of the research; an d volunteer for projects that disclose all relevant information. Yet contem porary examples of lapses in the individual informed consent process have b een reported. The authors propose the use of community advisory boards, which can facilit ate research by providing advice about the informed consent process and the design and implementation of research protocols. These activities could he lp reduce the number of individual informed consent lapses, benefiting stud y participants and the scientific integrity of the research in question.