Carolyn Ells

Carolyn Ells, PhD, is Associate Professor (retired), Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences, McGill University with extensive experience as Chair and member with ethics expertise on Research Ethics Boards (REBs) at McGill University, Jewish General Hospital, and Dalhousie University. The need for ethical research to keep pace with rapidly evolving research practices grounded her contributions to developing research ethics policy. She served as Chair, Interagency Panel on Research Ethics (PRE) (advises CIHR, NSERC, SSHRC presidents on research ethics policy; recommends revisions and interpretations of the Interagency Policy Statement: Ethical Research Involving Humans) and as member on Subcommittees: Material Incidental Findings (Chair), Cell Line Advisory Subcommittee, Chapter 11 Clinical Trials, Population & Public Health Research Advisory Committee. She was a Project Partner (in her capacity as Chair of PRE), on a major initiative that produced a SPIRIT-PRO Extension and related guidance for Improving Patient-Reported Outcomes study design in Trial Protocols (IMPART). She co-authored the International Network on Feminist Ethics submission to the World Medical Association recommending updates to the Declaration of Helsinki in 2008. Several of her publications and presentations address research ethics review and policy. Expanding her scope to animal research, she represented the Canadian Bioethics Society on Canadian Council for Animal Care, serving on the Standards Committee, and Ethics Principles Subcommittee. She contributed to development of national standards for human research in Canada by serving on HRSO Technical Committee for CAN/HRSO-200.01–2021 “Ethical Review and Oversight of Human Research”; and as a contributor to HRSO Technical Committee for CAN/HRSO-300.01-2022 “Conduct of Human Research”. She is the current Chair of Accreditation Council, Human Research Accreditation Canada.