Active discussion at the 3rd BBMRI.at Citizen Expert Panel in Graz
At the 3rd BBMRI.at Citizen Expert Panel at the ZWT in Graz, citizens had the opportunity to discuss the use of medical samples and data for research with biobanking experts.
Prof. Andrea Berghold (director of the Institute of Medicine Informatics, Medical University of Graz) as ethics expert and Prof. Berthold Huppertz (Head of Biobank Graz, Medical University of Graz) gave a short introductory lecture on biobanks and ethics and answered questions raised by the participants, e.g.
- What is a biobank and what is its purpose?
- What happens to my samples? Who uses and who sees my medical data?
- Will I be informed in the event that a researcher who uses my sample finds out I have a disease or predisposition for a disease?
- Which data are provided to researchers and are they really anonymized?
- How do you deal with different ethical guidelines for international research?
- Are samples mainly used in academic or industrial research? What is the role of pharmaceutical companies in biobanking?
- What is regulated by the informed consent?
- Can samples be sold? How are biobanks financed?
These and many other topics concerned participants.
