The Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University had established the ethics committee for reviewing the human research protocols since 1989. At the early period of operation, most of research works submitted for ethical review were from the clinical researchers who received external fundings from overseas countries. To avoid inconsistent standard for ethical reviewing, according to the international guidelines and to improve the quality of research conducting by the faculty members, the Board of Faculty of Medicine issued the first policy regarding the requirement on ethical review for research in March 30th, 1997. This policy introduced numerous impacts on the researcher’s practice. The research projects that were not received an approval by the Faculty of Medicine Ethic Committee would neither be recognized as their achievement for academic promotion nor be used for their  request for any supports from the Faculty of Medicine.

In 2000, the President of Khon Kaen University officially issued the establishment of the Khon Kaen University Ethics Committee for Human Research (KKUEC) by advancing the scopes and responsibilities of the former Faculty of Medicine Ethics Committee. Currently, Faculty of  Medicine provides working space and two office staffs, where as the KKU provides another  two office staffs and operational budget (approximately 20,000 USD/year and with annual increment). This budget has been spent for equipping the office tools and computer database system and for supporting educational programs for the board members and investigators. The KKUEC has received the first FWA from OHAP since 2003 and has renewed every three years.

KKU EC received recognition from SIDCER in 2008. The KKU EC currently has four panels reviewing over 2,000 protocols per year. Panel 1 reviews all research protocols from members of the Faculty of Medicine. Panel 2 reviews research protocols from paramedical faculties and Panel 3 is responsible for social research protocols from the rest of faculties. Panel 4 reviews Medical device research. Members have undergone long-term training in WIRB fellowship, MFESGF program, and SFGF program. Four members are surveyors for SIDCER. One of them is also certified by the Council for Certification of IRB Professionals (CIP). EC administrative staff have increased from 14 to 18 persons in 2018 to 2022 (not include Center Director). EC members have increased from 245 persons in 2018 to 299 persons in 2022. There are currently 56 regular committee members ( 14 persons in each of the 4 panels) and 243 alternating committee members.

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ศูนย์จริยธรรมการวิจัยในมนุษย์ มหาวิทยาลัยขอนแก่น เป็นหน่วยงานหลักในการปกป้องศักดิ์ศรี และความเป็นอยู่ที่ดีของอาสาสมัครที่เข้าร่วมโครงการวิจัยในมนุษย์ เป็นที่ยอมรับ 1 ใน 3 ของภูมิภาคอาเซียน

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