The team is researching the review practices of medical ethics committees regarding qualitative studies and examining the challenges and opportunities for improvement.
The Working Group of Medical Ethics Committees has awarded the Medical Ethics team at Ruhr University the 2025 Research Prize for outstanding scientific work. The prize is being awarded for the Bochum-based research project aimed at improving the ethical review practices of medical ethics committees in qualitative health research. Dr. Sarah Potthoff (now at the University of Münster) accepted the award as lead author on behalf of the team—Fee Roth, Dr. Matthé Scholten, and Prof. Dr. Dr. Jochen Vollmann—at the summer conference of the Working Group of Medical Ethics Committees on June 5, 2025, in Berlin.
Principles of Research Involving Human Subjects
Medical ethics committees evaluate biomedical research projects based on scientific, ethical, and legal criteria. In doing so, they must ensure compliance with the essential ethical standards governing research involving human subjects, the rights and protection of study participants, and the freedom of research.
In medical research, qualitative empirical studies have gained significance alongside established quantitative empirical studies. The award-winning empirical work by medical ethicists at the University of Bochum examines the review practices of medical ethics committees regarding qualitative studies and explores the challenges and potential for improvement. They demonstrate that, despite disciplinary differences, members of medical ethics committees and applicants for qualitative studies identify common goals for improving review practices—such as strengthening qualitative expertise, improving communication, and better aligning procedures. “This demonstrates that ethical review practices suitable for qualitative health research can be achieved through collegial collaboration between researchers and members of medical ethics committees, based on a shared understanding of scientific quality, the justification of ethical concerns, and a shared sense of responsibility for ethically sound research,” says Sarah Potthoff.
Original publications
Sarah Potthoff, Ree Roth, Jochen Vollmann, Matthé Scholten: Improving the Ethics Review of Qualitative Health Research: A Comparison of Review Practices and Suggestions for Improvement by Researchers and Members of Research Ethics Committees, in: Qualitative Health Research, 2024, https://doi.org/10.1177/10497323241293709
Sarah Potthoff, Ree Roth, Matthé Scholten: Qualitative Health Research and Procedural Ethics: An Interview Study to Investigate Researchers‘ Ways of Navigating the Demands of Medical Research Ethics Committees in Germany, in: Research Ethics, 2024, https://doi.org/10.1177/17470161231202135
Funded by the Research Funding Program of the Faculty of Medicine at Ruhr University Bochum (FoRUM Ref. No. F982-2020).
Press Contact
Dr. Matthé Scholten
Institute for Medical Ethics and History of Medicine
School of Medicine
Ruhr University Bochum
Phone: +49 234 32 28628
Email: matthe.scholten@ruhr-uni-bochum.de