Assessing the quality of human research protection programs

Protecting human subjects participating in research is an ethical mandate for all research involving human subjects. Institutions conducting research involving human subjects establish operational frameworks, referred to as human research protection programs, to ensure the rights and welfare of research participants and to meet ethical and regulatory requirements. In this book, Min-Fu Tsan describes the Department of Veterans Affairs’ experience in the development and implementation of human research protection program quality indicators, its accomplishments, and effectiveness in improving the quality and performance of human research protection programs. He also proposes potential areas for future research to further improve the system for protecting human research subjects.