Table 3

Characteristics of ethics committees


Medical School
Characteristics
Mean ± SD
Range

Total members
10.4 ± 2.6
6–22
External members (outside of medical school but within same college/university)
1.3 ± 1.3
0–6
External members (outside of same college/university)
1.4 ± 1.1
0–5
Female members
0.6 ± 0.9
0–6
Discipline of EC members


Basic medicine
2.7 ± 1.1
1–8
Clinical medicine
4.0 ± 1.6
1–8
Other medicine
0.7 ± 1.1
0–4
Nursing
0.3 ± 0.6
0–3
Other healthcare field
0.1 ± 0.4
0–3
Law
1.0 ± 0.6
0–3
Philosophy/Ethics
0.5 ± 0.6
0–3
Other Humanities and/or Social Sciences
0.4 ± 0.7
0–3
Administrative
0.2 ± 0.6
0–4
Other
0.5 ± 0.9
0–4

Akabayashi et al. BMC Medical Ethics 2007 8:8   doi:10.1186/1472-6939-8-8