oa Raising The Bar On Ethical Regulations In International Clinical Research: Qatar Perspective

Raising the bar on ethical regulations in international clinical research: Qatar Perspective Learning Objectives: 1. Understand how new national regulations of human research protections can be established in developing countries, 2. Understand the processes required and the institutional cultural shifts necessary to advance human research protections to meet the international standards. Qatar-Research While oil and gas will probably remain the backbone of Qatar's economy for some time to come, the country is interested in diversifying the economy into knowledge-based economy. In recent years, Qatar has placed a great emphasis on education and research. The country has embarked on an ambitious national research program. Consequently, the country allocated 2.8% of its GDP to research and development. . Qatar-Research Governance The Supreme Council of Health (“SCH”) is a governmental regulatory body that has the highest authority in health care services and research governance. The mission of the Research Department (RD) at SCH is to ensure that research is carried out with the highest scientific and ethical standards in order to provide high quality research directed at improving the effectiveness and quality of health care. The RD at SCH has been successful in setting forth a research governance model to enable ethical and scientifically robust research practices, in protecting research participants through processes and guidelines, and in detecting research misconduct through systematic auditing Research Governance Challenges: Localization of regulations Due to cultural and religious concerns, certain regulations have to be tailored. Example for Localization of regulations: See table Conclusion: Research regulation in Qatar overcomes the challenge of adapting international regulations by customizing its regulations according to cultural and religious concerns