Informed Consent
All patients have a right to privacy and utmost care should be exercised to not violate their privacy. However, if and when the need arises, an informed consent should be obtained from the patients. The latest version of Helsinki Declaration can be followed as a useful guide for ethical standards involving informed consent.
JAMC follows the guideline provided by the ICMJE as far as rights of patients are concerned. All incormation which can be used to identify the patients including, but not limited to initials, names or hospital record number should be omitted from the written or photographic material unless its inclusion can be justified and / or the patient or the parents / guardians of the patient consented to the inclusion in writing. If there is a doubt about maintenace of anonymity, informed consent should be obtained from the patients.
If it is necessary to show an identifiable person in the manuscript, an informed consent should only be obtained after showing the manuscript to the patient and the patients should be alerted to the availability of the published material via internet as well as in paper form. Although the Journal of Ayub Medical College Abbottabad usually doesn’t require submission of such consent forms at the time of submission, they may be asked for during the processing of manuscript. A statement of obtaining an informed consent from the study participants before their inclusion in the study should be added to the manuscript, usually in the methods section.