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International Journal for Quality in Health Care 2004 16(5):343-344; doi:10.1093/intqhc/mzh075
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International Journal for Quality in Health Care vol. 16 no. 5 © International Society for Quality in Health Care and Oxford University Press 2004; all rights reserved

Editorial

Why we need ethical oversight of quality improvement projects

The first 10% of the full text of this article appears below.

The jury is still out on whether ethical oversight is needed for quality improvement projects. Many quality practitioners argue that as long as the quality improvement project is not primarily research, ethical review is unnecessary. In this editorial, I would like to defend the opposite view, that ethical oversight is indeed desirable for most initiatives to improve the quality of health care.

Let us redefine the nature of health care. Much of health care would amount to reckless endangerment or even to bodily harm if it were not covered by the tacit covenant between patient and doctor (think of surgery or chemotherapy). Under this covenant, the doctor is allowed to perform potentially dangerous treatments as long as she or he acts solely in the . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Thomas V. Perneger

Editor-in-chief Quality of Care Unit Geneva University Hospitals CH-1211 Geneva 14, Switzerland


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T. V. Perneger
The real ethical problem
Int. J. Qual. Health Care, October 1, 2005; 17(5): 379 - 379.
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