Acta clinica Croatica, Vol. 58. No. 3., 2019.
Review article
https://doi.org/10.20471/acc.2019.58.03.14
Informed Consent in Croatian Clinical Laboratory Practice – Current Issues and Future Perspectives
Iva Sorta-Bilajac Turina
orcid.org/0000-0003-1909-2518
; Department of Social Medicine, Teaching Institute of Public Health of Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, Rijeka, Croatia; Department of Environmental Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Rijeka, Rijeka, Croatia
Vesna Šupak Smolčić
; Clinical Department of Laboratory Diagnostics, Rijeka University Hospital Centre, Rijeka, Croatia; Department of Medical Informatics, School of Medicine, University of Rijeka, Rijeka, Croatia
Abstract
This paper deliberates on the place and role of informed consent in everyday clinical laboratory practice. Taking into account interna-tional ethical guidelines such as the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights, the Declaration of Helsinki of the World Medical Association, and Croatian national laws and codes such as the Act on the Protection of Patients’ Rights, the Act on Medical Biochemistry, the Code of Ethics of Medical Biochemists and Medical Deontology, the Act on Healthcare Services, and the Code of Ethics of the Croatian Chamber of Healthcare Workers, an overview is given on the actual implementation of the aforemen-tioned recommendations and regulations. A distinction between consent to a medical procedure and consent to enrolment in a re-search protocol is strongly stressed out. Special emphasis is placed on the role of specialists in laboratory medicine and masters of medical biochemistry in the process of obtaining informed consent. The design of an ‘informed consent interview’ is to be taken into consideration. Additional deliberation is needed on the option of ‘broad consent’. It is concluded that informed consent should repre-sent an important and routine activity within Croatian clinical laboratories.
Keywords
Informed consent; Biochemistry; Clinical laboratory services; Croatia
Hrčak ID:
230246
URI
Publication date:
1.9.2019.
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