VA still fails to protect research subjects

The U.S. Veterans Administration hospital network and affiliated university hospitals routinely fail to comply with regulations that are designed to safeguard human subjects who participate in medical experiments, according to a General Accounting Office investigation released Thursday. The VA has a wide-ranging medical research program that it conducts using Department of Defense appropriations as well as funding from NIH and pharmaceutical companies.

Victor S. Rezendes, GAO's Assistant Comptroller General, briefed a congressional subcommittee about the investigation on Thursday, reporting that a "disturbing pattern of noncompliance" with human subject protections was found at eight VA medical centers. ...