The RIDE Program with help VA researchers, oversight bodies, and study participants answer important ethical questions that come up in health research. Photo by Frank Curran.

VA's new Research, Innovation, and Data Ethics (RIDE) Program

July 30, 2024

National Center for Ethics in Health Care

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) National Center for Ethics in Health Care (NCEHC) has launched the Research, Innovation, and Data Ethics (RIDE) Program to help the VA research community address ethical issues.

Challenging ethical questions come up often in health research: How do I know if a Veteran has the capacity to give informed consent to enroll in my study? What inclusion and exclusion criteria will treat potential volunteers fairly without compromising my study results? How can I resolve disagreements among collaborators about who deserves authorship credit for a manuscript?

Oversight bodies like Institutional Review Boards offer essential guidance, but even these bodies sometimes need ethics advice, and there are ethical issues that fall outside of their scope.

To help the VA research community navigate these challenges, the RIDE Program was designed to assist VA personnel, partners, and Veterans with addressing ethical concerns in research and innovation. Leading this effort is Dr. Jake Earl, an accomplished research ethicist who joined VA in 2024 after working with the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center and the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.

“Ensuring VA research adheres to the highest ethical standards supports a premier learning health care system worthy of Veterans’ trust,” said Earl. “The RIDE program will help VA Research maintain the highest standards and conduct the best research to improve Veterans’ lives.”

The RIDE Program offers research ethics consultation to members of the VA research community facing ethical issues. This collaborative service provides timely, solutions-oriented advice on a wide range of ethical issues that arise in research and innovation. The service is freely available to investigators, staff, administrators, oversight bodies, external partners, and even research participants involved with VA.

In addition to ethics consultation, the RIDE Program is available to contribute ethics expertise to committees, workgroups, and funding applications. The program also will provide training and education related to ethics for members of the VA researcher community. Facilities and program offices may contact NCEHC for a brief on the program or help developing education or training for research ethics topics.

To learn more about the RIDE Program or to request a research ethics consultation, contact Dr. Earl at jacob.earl@va.gov or NCEHC at vhaethics@va.gov.

VA Research Currents archives || Sign up for VA Research updates