Protecting human research subjects: the past defines the future

The creation of Institutional Review Boards to assure the protection of research subjects came out of terrible research abuses that resulted in the Belmont Report and federal regulations establishing rules for federally funded research and its independent review. The Common Rule became widely accepted as the way to oversee human research that is funded by federal agencies, or used in FDA submissions. The Office of Human Research Protections, now under the Secretary of DHHS, created Federalwide Assurances with groups that receive federal funding and others, the vast majority of which have agreed to apply the same ethical rules to all research regardless of funding source. There are controversies over the best methods to protect human research subjects, confusion about how to handle some of the gray areas, increased regulatory burdens, and debates about the adequacy of the IRB system. New exciting directions have evolved and overall, research subjects appear better protected than ever.