Informed Consent

Welcome to the eighth lesson in our step-by-step educational video series: Informed Consent. This series is specifically designed for early-career researchers, journal editors, and medical publishing professionals.

In this session, we'll explore:

• The importance and ethical basis of informed consent
• Key principles of informed consent
• Consent in special research contexts
• Documentation and ethics review requirements for informed consent

Behrooz Astaneh

Behrooz Astaneh is a physician-scientist, educator, and methodologist who has dedicated his career to the field of medical journalology. He trained as a medical doctor, pursued further studies in medical journalology at the University of Westminster in London, UK, and completed a PhD in Health Research Methodology at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada.

Over more than two decades in this field, he founded and headed the medical journalism department in his native country, where he also established the country's first MSc program in medical journalology. He spent more than 10 years as editor-in-chief of the country's oldest English-language medical journal, and has held leadership roles across several international editorial organizations, serving as vice president of the Eastern Mediterranean Association of Medical Editors (EMAME), a council member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), a core member of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), and a director of the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME).

He currently serves as Director of Education and Ethics Integrity at IMR Press, Assistant Professor (Part-Time) at McMaster University, and Associate Editor at the Canadian Medical Association Journal. He also helped establish McMaster University's first full-term course on medical writing and publishing.