Tag Archives: Ethics

Routine vitamin K prophylaxis. Why are there so many refusals?

Posted on 6 August 2026 by Keith Barrington

This is still a fairly rare phenomenon in my hospital, but it does seem to increasing slightly here, as it is just about everywhere else. The science is settled, transplacental transfer of vitamin K is extremely limited, hepatic stores at … Continue reading →

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Registration of clinical trials.

Posted on 20 March 2026 by Keith Barrington

Since 2005 the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors has required that a condition of publication of a prospective controlled trial is that it should be registered in an accessible database prior to starting the trial. It is understandable that … Continue reading →

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Is this article trustworthy?

Posted on 21 November 2025 by Keith Barrington

There are many ways that an article in the medical literature may not be worthy of trust, and whose results may be unreliable. I remember one of my own trials, LACUNA, which was a pilot RCT of lactoferrin supplementation to … Continue reading →

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Unethical research practice, fraud and abuse of trust.

Posted on 2 June 2025 by Keith Barrington

One of the worst kinds of unethical research practice is to fail to publish results after a prospective study. Parents consent to research for altruistic motives, in the belief that their baby’s participation will help the care of other, future, … Continue reading →

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What Sick Babies Can Teach Us

Posted on 13 November 2024 by Keith Barrington

As usual for a TED talk this is 18 minutes long, and, in that brief time, Annie recounts her trajectory: learning from families of kids with trisomy 13 and trisomy 18; our own experience with counselling for threatened extreme preterm … Continue reading →

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Making Clinical Research Oversight Fit-for-Purpose

Posted on 6 November 2024 by Keith Barrington

The title is a slightly edited copy of the title a discussion article in JAMA, that discusses some important issues in IRB oversight of clinical research. (Kass NE, et al. Making the Ethical Oversight of All Clinical Trials Fit for … Continue reading →

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Badly performed, badly presented, unethical published research; what to do?

Posted on 29 October 2024 by Keith Barrington

Since at least 2013 the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki has mandated registration of clinical trials prior to enrolment of the first subject. Since 2005 the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors has required trial registration as a condition … Continue reading →

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Making decisions for extreme preterms, do parents regret their choices?

Posted on 2 October 2024 by Keith Barrington

In 2022 we published an article addressing the question in the title. As part of the Parents’ Voices Project, we questioned families of very preterm infants at follow up about their experiences prior to, during, and after the NICU. 98% … Continue reading →

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The preterm GI tract is not sterile

Posted on 27 October 2023 by Keith Barrington

The FDA are at it again, they seem to be on a mission to go after suppliers of probiotics for preterm babies, and have now attacked Abbott. They appear to have demanded that they stop marketing their probiotic product, as … Continue reading →

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What outcomes matter to parents?

Posted on 25 May 2023 by Keith Barrington

Following on from my 2 recent posts, a new publication from the CHILD-BRIGHT network in Canada, (Synnes A, et al. Redefining Neurodevelopmental Impairment: Perspectives of Very Preterm Birth Stakeholders. Children. 2023;10(5) Open Access). CHILD-BRIGHT being a slightly tortuous acronym derived … Continue reading →

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