Confusion Worse Confounded: A Comment on 'Withdrawl of Clinical Trials Policy by Canadian Research Institute is a 'Lost Opportunity for Increased Transparency'

According to a recent BMJ article on CIHR's decision to "disappear" its policy on clinical trial registration, "Ian Graham, CIHR's vice president Knowledge Translation and Public Outreach, stated the CIHR policy was removed 'as the overlap [with Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans (TCPS 2)] will cause confusion and inconsistent application of the requirements.'"

Ironically, this explanation is itself confusing and inconsistent with previous decisions made by CIHR. There are at least three areas in which CIHR policy/guidelines overlapped with TCPS 2 (registration and results disclosure of trials, research involving Aboriginal People, and research involving human pluripotent stem cells), and in each case CIHR took a different approach.