Ethics Committee

• Agenda of upcoming meeting
• Regulation
• List of required documents

The main purpose of the YSMU Ethics Committee is to discuss clinical, ethical and moral issues in the fields of healthcare, medicine, pharmacology, research involving laboratory animals, clinical, ethical and moral issues, as well as behavioral and ethical issues of University employees, students and others.

Ethics Committee meetings are held on the second Thursday of each month. The deadline for submission of documents is 14 days before the meeting.

Before the meeting, consultation, and collection of documents is performed with the applicant. The prepared package is submitted to the Chairman of the EC, who signs the application and includes it in the agenda. The applicant submits the documents required for EC consideration in the Armenian language in accordance with the list of required documents. If the application fully meets the requirements, it is included in the agenda of the meeting. If the work does not meet the EC requirements, it is not accepted for consideration. In that case, the reason for rejection is explained to the applicant.

The package, before the consideration of the EC, is sent to the reviewer appointed by the Ethics Committee according to the given profession, who writes an opinion on the ethical issues of the work. Members of EC get familiar with relevant documents in advance. Applicant researchers are required to participate in the meeting, meanwhile, supervisors can participate in the discussion and express their opinion upon necessity or send it by e-mail under the condition of confidentiality.

During the discussion, the following aspects are addressed:

• research design, compliance of problems and goals with ethical norms,
• risk-benefit reasoning in research,
• expediency of using control groups,
• indicators for interrupting or stopping the study,
• appropriateness of opportunities for the implementation of research tasks and objectives,
• discussion of the composition of researchers,
• the principles of the selection of research subjects,
• provision of medical care and protection of interests of research participants,
• compensation for financial and non-financial damages in case of harm to research participants.

EC’s written conclusion can be: 1) positive, 2) positive with remarks, 3) negative.

The Ethics Committee is registered in the International Database of Research Involving Humans (IRB – Institutional Review Boarding).

Committee Staff

The Staff of the Committee is comprised of 17 members representing clinical and theoretical disciplines.