Grant: Catalyst Grant: Ethics

In order to do research in emergency situations it is sometimes necessary for research teams to use alternative ways to get consent from patients and families. Sometimes this involves enrolling the patient into the study at the time of the event and asking for consent to continue to follow their progress at a later point in time. These alternative approaches have been controversial however no one has ever done a study to understand if in general Canadians would be okay with this kind of research approach or to describe the experience of patients and families who have been in enrolled in this kind of research in order to identify any benefits or issues. We are proposing to look at all of the existing literature, and then to do a cross-Canada survey and in-depth interviews with research participants in order to gain new insight that will help researchers continue to do emergency medicine in a way that is acceptable to patients and families and to help inform Research Ethics Boards decision-making on this type of research.