Dear Users
At this time of year it can be hard to recruit participants. It is therefore very tempting to recruit close friends and relatives.
One of the ethical issues that arises from taking this route for recruitment is that it might be difficult for a friend or relative to turn down your request. Unfortunately, if they accept then it then places you and us in a rather difficult position if an anomaly is spotted on the scan. This is extremely difficult to deal with if the investigator is in the control room when the anomaly is detected.
We already have a policy that prevents staff from scanning relatives. We now will extend this to the scanning of all close relatives. I hope that you can understand the reasons behind this decision.
The radiographers have been asked to, politely, refuse to scan relatives of investigators.
Thanks
Gary