Focus of medical research is on developing new means of preventing, diagnosing and treating illnesses. Technological advances have permitted a plethora of new drugs, vaccines and diagnostic techniques to be available for human evaluation, Evaluation of these newer modalities in human being is a critical step before these can be made available for general use. The criticality of this process of human evaluation is due to consideration of safety of human subjects participating.

An independent ethical review ensures that the subjects are protected and that only scientifically and ethically acceptable research protocols are carried out.

This Independent Ethics Committee is a welcome step in this direction and the members must be complimented for this laudable effort.

Dr. D. L. Deshpande

Director of Medical Education and Research,
Mumbai.