BHBIA Legal and Ethical Guidelines for Healthcare Market Research: Your essential guide
The UPDATED (December 2024) BHBIA Legal and Ethical Guidelines are now available.
Click on the DOWNLOADS link on the right hand side of this web page to view/download your copy.
You should find that the document opens in Adobe Reader, which is needed to optimise your view of the practical examples. If this does not happen automatically, you may need to save the document and then open it with Adobe.
(If you don't have Adobe Reader you can click here to install it, or visit the App store if on a mobile device)
These guidelines have been updated to:
Reflect changes to the ABPI Code of Practice, sponsored has been replaced by commissioned to reflect that market research is not sponsored by a company under the definition of Sponsorship in Clause 1.22 of the ABPI Code. The research is commissioned by the company.
- Reference new Guidance - What is Research Ethics Committee Approval and when is it needed?
- Include revisions to the Pro Forma templates
About the Guidelines generally:
The BHBIA Legal and Ethical Guidelines include everything you need, in one place, to keep your market research project running smoothly from a legal and ethical point of view - saving you time and trouble.
- Legal do’s and don’ts
- Data protection unravelled (GDPR / UK Data Protection Act 2018 requirements are built in throughout)
- Best practice recommendations
- Step-by-step through a project (This makes the Guidelines easy to navigate, and you can also search on key words for the information you need)
- Terms made easy
- Ready-to-use forms
The Guidelines are updated every year, and changes since the previous version are clearly indicated so that you can see what’s new.
The Guidelines include around 60 practical examples in the form of questions and answers (Q&As). These are marked by a question mark within an pink circle – click on the symbol to open the examples.
Benefits of this format:
- By combining these examples within the Guidelines, we hope we have made it easier for you to understand the practical impact of the laws and regulations;
- You’ll find the examples alongside the relevant section of the Guidelines;
- They are quick to access and easy to read;
- The questions are based on real-life members’ enquiries and issues;
- The content reflects commissioning client, market research and fieldwork agency perspectives;
- There is no longer the need for a separate FAQ resource – so you have a ‘one stop shop’ for your legal and ethical guidelines needs (Appendix N provides a full list of all the questions that are now covered by the practical examples).
Thanks to all members of the Ethics & Compliance Committee for contributing to the new format (introduced in June 2020).
Other useful resources:
For your convenience the pro formas (found in the appendix section of the Legal and Ethical Guidelines) are also available in word format for ease of use.
View details / Download Pro Formas
If you have a query about the Guidelines - or any legal or ethical query about UK healthcare market research that's not answered in the Guidelines - please use the guidelines Online Enquiries service (full BHBIA members only) - you will need to be logged in to access the form.
Submit a Guidelines Query
This is covered separately within the specific ABPI/ BHBIA Guidance notes on collecting adverse events, product complaints and special reporting situations during market research. We cross reference this in the Guidelines rather than repeating information from it.
The BHBIA provides a separate Legal and Ethical Guidelines for Healthcare Data Analytics document.
This provides clear guidance on the legal and ethical implications of using secondary data for business intelligence purposes such as database building, market research or customer relationship management.