Improving informed consent comprehension in Visual ways

Mohammad Hosseini, PhD; Anju Peters, MD; Brady Daitch, an MPH student; and a team of Northwestern Medicine investigators recently began developing a library of visual icons to support research participant comprehension of informed consent forms (ICFs).

“Informed consent is a fundamental ethical process that provides individuals with comprehensive information about a study before they agree to participate,” says Peters. “In talking with colleagues, we felt that some study participants did not fully comprehend the informed consent process and research has shown that sometimes key terms and used methods are not well understood.” 

The team’s initial pilot was launched to assist research teams in designing more comprehensible ICFs to promote participants’ understanding of their rights, roles, and responsibilities. By addressing communication barriers in ICFs, the project promotes research participation, fosters the principle of autonomy in clinical research, and enhances trust in science.

“Our focus on enhancing ICFs aims at improving the accessibility and ethics in clinical research,” says Hosseini. “Efforts will be made to expand the library for various contexts, create more awareness among research teams, and focus on innovative strategies to improve consent comprehension.”