Staff Services / Research Ethics / Research Ethics Board / Our Philosophy

Research involving human participants must be directed toward the benefit of humanity and the advancement of knowledge. Researchers are to conduct their research as critical and responsible professionals, accountable to those people participating in the research, to the society that supports them, as well as to their colleagues, students and research institutions.

The Unity Health Toronto Research Ethics Board (REB) is guided by:

• Respect for a person’s right for self-determination and autonomy
• Not harming others nor violating a person’s fundamental rights of liberty and privacy
• Doing good to others, including society, research participants, researchers, sponsors and institutions
• Recognizing the duty of researchers to disseminate the analysis and interpretation of any significant results to the research community, since silence on negative outcomes may foster potentially harmful clinical practices or wasteful duplication, and
• Equitable distribution of the benefits and burdens of research.

Other guidelines for the REB

The REB is guided in decision-making regarding research protocols by a number of key documents at the local, national, and international level. The Tri-Council Policy Statement, Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans has been adopted as a national standard. In addition, the adoption by Health Canada of the ICH Good Clinical Practice: Consolidated Guideline provides the REB and researchers with internationally accepted standards when conducting clinical research.

The REB is attentive to local, national, and international trends in research ethics that may bear directly on research carried out within Unity Health Toronto.