To the Editor: While using medical board data for research purposes is very welcome, I have some reservations about ethical aspects of the study by Elkin and colleagues.1 Prospective ethics review of human research is intended to protect participants from foreseeable and avoidable harm. I suggest that, in this instance, avoidable harm has resulted, through generalised adverse and possibly unfair publicity about particular groups of international medical graduates.
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- 1. Elkin K, Spittal MJ, Studdert DM. Risks of complaints and adverse disciplinary findings against international medical graduates in Victoria and Western Australia. Med J Aust 2012; 197: 448-452. <MJA full text>
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