Advancing informed consent for vulnerable populations.

Informed consent is essential for the conduct of ethical biomedical research. Despite its importance, obtaining informed consent is often a complex process, which raises concerns about the extent to which participants are truly informed. Effective implementation is especially difficult among research participants who have limited health literacy. Often, these potential participants are from traditionally high-risk groups, including underrepresented minorities and children. With this in mind, we suggest an innovative approach that uses low health-literacy communication strategies and visual aids to augment and potentially replace the traditional approach to informed consent.