Takeaway
Consent waivers in research help to increase the proportion of critically ill adults able to participate in clinical trials.
Why this matters
Further research on critically ill individuals is urgently needed to improve their prognosis; however, it is difficult to involve this vulnerable population due to the difficulty of obtaining informed consent.
The 2014 update of the Swiss law on research increased individuals' protection by adding specific requirements for emergency situations, but the role of consent waivers is unclear.
These important findings suggest that consent waivers play a key role in recruitment of critically ill participants in clinical trials.