About
Traditional studies randomly assign individual participants to control and experimental groups; however, in the increasingly important practice of cluster randomization, groups of individuals—whether they be hospital wards, schools, or even entire communities—are randomly assigned to the respective arms of a study. But since research ethics largely evolved in the context of that more traditional paradigm, the emergence of cluster randomization poses important questions: how do the ethical considerations change when we randomize groups, rather than individuals? In this CARE (Conversations about Research Ethics) Panel featuring Cory Goldstein, an author of the updated Ottawa Statement on the Ethical Design and Conduct of Cluster Randomized Trials, we ask how the study of groups rather than individuals and practices like cluster randomization change what researchers owe their participants and their communities.
Panelists
Cory Goldstein, Postdoctoral Fellow, Methodological & Implementation Research (MIR) Program, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
