Topalovic, Tijana http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9446-0643
Episkopou, Maria
Schillberg, Erin
Brcanski, Jelena
Jocic, Milica
Article History
Received: 5 February 2020
Accepted: 15 April 2021
First Online: 29 April 2021
Declarations
:
: This research fulfilled the exemption criteria set by the Médecins Sans Frontières Ethics Review Board for a posteriori analyses of routinely collected clinical data and thus did not require MSF ERB review. It was conducted with permission from Medical Director, Operational Centre Brussels, Médecins Sans Frontières. In addition, approval was officially granted by the Ethics board of the National Institute of Public health of Serbia (opinion number 1642/2).For the over 3,000 children who have been seen by MSF teams in Serbia it was not possible to obtain retrospective consent as almost all of these patients were no longer seen at the clinic. The services of the social worker were discontinued in 2019, due to regionalization of the project and local downsizing of personnel, therefore seeking informed consent from former patients was also not possible. However, beneficiaries have verbally consented to sharing information and using it for program analysis and adaptation. MSF Ethics Review Board and local Ethics committee of the Institute for Public Health in Serbia were asked to waive the requirement for formal consent and this has been granted.
: Not applicable.
: The authors declare they have no competing interests.