Table 2 Survey question 4 (Areas that need improvement) and the participants’ comments

Patients (15 mentions)

Conditions, rights, safety, follow-up, autonomy, actual volunteering, compensation, selection, management, care, vulnerability, adverse events.

Committees (12 mentions).

Reexamining ongoing research, member profile, requirements, policies, auditing, member training and education, CONBIOÉTICA monitoring, numbers, researchers, certification, protocol revision times.

Consent (8 mentions).

Informed consent letters

Regulations (7 mentions).

Knowledge, regulation processes, best practices, applications, ethics.

Industry (5 mentions).

Dependence, bioethics and bioethics education for management, coercion, corruption, agreements, conflicts of interest.

Researchers (5 mentions).

Experience, ethics, planning and selection, ethic education, thought leaders.

Protocols (4 mentions).

Truthfulness, exclusion criteria, diagnostic criteria, treatment design, patient selection, patient follow-up.

Sites (4 mentions).

Certifications, requirements, screening by authorities, proceedings and operation.

Declaration of Helsinki (4 mentions).

Providing medication at the end of the study, giving patients information, benefits for individuals and the community.

Others (3 mentions).

Management and operation of health services [Authorities]. Intervention by specialists in philosophy of science [Justification in clinical research]. Data protection. [Ethics in a study evaluation, monitoring].