As a Health Care Professional, is it ethical and legal to collect ear wax samples from patients for experiment

Question

I am a Health Care Professional working with a team of doctors who feel a drug exists in ear wax. We are ready to launch our study but have run into an ethical dilemma. Do we ask each patient after an ear cleaning if we can have their wax? Do we need to ask them? What documentation do we need? We feel it is different then a particpant in a drug trial. Any help is greatley appreciated.

Answer 1

You do need to ask them, preferably before you clean their ears out.



However, I will point out that if you are getting ear wax from people who have come in for the purpose of getting an ear cleaning, you may be skewing your data - the composition of the wax may be causing the patients to request an ear cleaning. For instance, if you work at an ENT clinic, people may come in because of hearing loss or pain in the ear canal which ends up being caused by ear wax accumulation. Whereas people with a different ear wax chemistry may never have this happen.

Answer 2

Why not use the ear wax from cadavers?