ReviewThe Journal of law, medicine & ethics : a journal of the American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics2008
Managing incidental findings in human subjects research: analysis and recommendations.
Review in The Journal of law, medicine & ethics : a journal of the American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to 4 registered trials, which are not on this map. Cited by 350 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Observation of ImageReady™ MR Conditional Pacing System in China
Observation of ImageReady™ MR Conditional Defibrillation System in China (MR ICD)
A Randomized Controlled Trial of the Effect of Replacing Sugar-sweetened Beverages With Non-nutritive Sweetened Beverages or Water on Gut Microbiome and Metabolic Outcomes: STOP Sugars NOW Trial
Return of Genomic Results and Aggregate Penetrance in Population-Based Cohorts
Who cites it
350 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 699 citations in OpenAlex.
- Current global practice and implications for future research on disseminating health research results to study participants: A systematic review.PLoS medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Attitudes and beliefs regarding race-targeted genetic testing of Black people: A systematic review.Journal of genetic counseling · 2023Pooled it
- Whole-body magnetic resonance imaging in children - how and why? A systematic review.Pediatric radiology · 2021Pooled it
- Incidental Brain MRI Findings in Children: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.AJNR. American journal of neuroradiology · 2019Pooled it
- Potentially serious incidental findings on brain and body magnetic resonance imaging of apparently asymptomatic adults: systematic review and meta-analysis.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2018Pooled it
- Incidental findings in UK healthy volunteers screened for a COVID-19 vaccine trial.Clinical and translational science · 2022Trial
- The efficacy of vitamin B6 as an adjunctive therapy to lithium in improving the symptoms of acute mania in patients with bipolar disorder, type 1; a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, clinical trial.Brain and behavior · 2021Trial
- Incidental findings: A practical protocol for reporting elevated depressive symptoms in behavioral health research.Archives of psychiatric nursing · 2020Trial
- Recommendations for return of secondary genomic findings in observational cohort studies.Nature genetics · 2026Review
- Provider and patient perceptions on the usage of whole-body magnetic resonance imaging in oncology: a scoping review.Cancer imaging : the official publication of the International Cancer Imaging Society · 2026Review
- Ethical Considerations in Transcranial Focused Ultrasound Neuromodulation for Disorders of Consciousness.Neuromodulation : journal of the International Neuromodulation Society · 2026Article
- Return of health research findings in Nigeria-perspective of potential research participants.BMC medical ethics · 2026Article
- Classification of incidental findings in polytrauma computed tomography.Insights into imaging · 2026Article
- An adaptive, continuous-learning framework for clinical decision-making from proteome-wide biofluid data.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Return of health research findings in Nigeria-perspective of potential research participants.Research square · 2025Article
- Does point-of-care ultrasound examination by the general practitioner lead to inappropriate care? A follow-up study.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2025Observational
- Managing incidental findings in total body PET/CT studies: balancing ethical considerations and resource constraints.EJNMMI reports · 2025Article
- Rapid Whole-Genome Sequencing in Critically Ill Infants and Children with Suspected, Undiagnosed Genetic Diseases: Evolution to a First-Tier Clinical Laboratory Test in the Era of Precision Medicine.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Researcher views on returning results from multi-omics data to research participants: insights from The Molecular Transducers of Physical Activity Consortium (MoTrPAC) Study.BMC medical ethics · 2025Article
- How do study participants want to be informed about study results: Findings from a malaria trial in Cambodia, Ethiopia, Pakistan, and Indonesia.Journal of clinical and translational science · 2025Article
290 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
21 authors at 12 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
No consensus yet exists on how to handle incidental findings (IFs) in human subjects research. Yet empirical studies document IFs in a wide range of research studies, where IFs are findings beyond the aims of the study that are of potential health or reproductive importance to the individual research participant. This paper reports recommendations of a two-year project group funded by NIH to study how to manage IFs in genetic and genomic research, as well as imaging research. We conclude that researchers have an obligation to address the possibility of discovering IFs in their protocol and communications with the IRB, and in their consent forms and communications with research participants. Researchers should establish a pathway for handling IFs and communicate that to the IRB and research participants. We recommend a pathway and categorize IFs into those that must be disclosed to research participants, those that may be disclosed, and those that should not be disclosed.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.