Emerging Assets and Liabilities of a Committee on Human Welfare and Experimentation

Abstract

The University of California San Francisco Medical Center Committee on Human Welfare and Experimentation has reviewed 340 applications for research involving human beings during its first two years of operation. The Committee delegated review to three-man ad hoc groups selected on the basis of expertise and objectivity. Seventeen protocols were rejected by at least two ad hoc committees because risk-benefit ratio could not be assessed (seven), because of inadequate precautions (eight) and because of unacceptable risk (two).