How To Write a Medical Case Report: Step 4 - Obtain Patient Consent

Obtaining patient consent is not optional. You must, must, must obtain patient consent.

If the case report patient is deceased, you will need consent from the next of kin. If your case report will include family history, then you need consent from those family members.

ACHE's IRB has a patient consent form. For more information on ACHE's IRB, see Step 3.

In addition to the consent form from ACHE, some journals will require their own consent form. BMJ Case Reports is an example.¹ However, the practice of journals requiring there own consent form is not recommended by the Committee on Publication Ethics, so it is not common.²

Here are rules, regulations, and guidance on the protection of research participants, including securing consent:

• US Department of Health and Human Services. Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects ('Common Rule’). Accessed May 29, 2025. https://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/regulations-and-policy/regulations/common-rule/index.html
• World Medical Association. WMA Declaration of Helsinki: ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects. 75th  WMA General Assembly, Helsinki, Finland. October 2024. Accessed May 29, 2025. https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki/
• International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). Recommendations for the conduct, reporting, editing, and publication of scholarly work in medical journals. Accessed May 29, 2025. https://icmje.org/recommendations/