An update on the national general informed consent: what is the status quo of implementation at Swiss university hospitals?

Abstract

Informed consent (IC) is an ethical and legal requirement for research involving human participants. From a research perspective, interest in using health-related data and samples from large patient populations has intensified. In response, different forms of IC have been proposed, with a preference for the so-called General Consent (GC), via which donors agree to the further use of their data and samples for potential research projects that have not yet been defined. This article reviews: the legal basis of the GC in Switzerland; a short history about the process of reaching a harmonised GC at the national level; and the status quo of implementation in the five university hospitals in the country.