Informed Consent, Research, and Geriatric Patients: The Responsibility of Institutional Review Committees

Abstract

The Institutional Review Committee (IRC) is an important social innovation promising the effective protection of the rights of elderly potential research subjects. However, unnecessary elaboration of informed consent procedures may risk excluding older persons from both the primary and secondary benefits of the research process, discouraging research with a favorable risk-benefit ratio, and disparaging the competence of potential research subjects to make independent decisions. IRCs can actively encourage appropriate, satisfying and useful research involving geriatric patients.