Community meetings for emergency research community

to informed consent requirements where specific conditions were met (1). The basic requirements for this type of emergency research provision are the following: 1) Participants are in a life-threatening situa-tion where available treatments are un-proven or unsatisfactory; 2) obtaining in-formed consent in advance is not feasible; 3) there is potential for direct benefit to the participant; and 4) the research could not be practically carried out without a waiver. The final stipulation of this regulation is that certain requirements must be met in the community where the research is to be conducted. This condition requires 1) con-sultation with representatives of the com-munities in which the research will be con-ducted; 2) public disclosure to the communities before initiation of the re-search; and 3) public disclosure of the re-search findings to apprise the community of the results of the study (1). There is no specific stipulation in the emergency research consent exception as to how public disclosure to the commu-nities before conduct of the research study must be done. The 1998 guidance from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends the following: “The agency expects the IRB to provide an op-portunity for the community from which research subjects may be drawn to under-stand the proposed clinical investigation and its risks and benefits and to discuss the investigation... IRBs should consider, for example, having a public meeting in the community to discuss the protocol ” (2). The public meeting was one of several ac-ceptable methods to provide the IRB with community input for its final decision-Objective: To survey attendees at community meetings for an emergency research protocol and determine whether these meet-ings aid participants ’ understanding and decision to support the proposed emergency research