It is possible to question whether patients suffering from the early phase of an acute myocardial infarction (AMI) are able to give free and informed consent and whether or not it is ethically defensible to include them—those patients suffering from more severe symptoms, in particular—in research projects. In fact, it has been shown that a reasonable number of patients who have given their consent in this situation are only able to recall very little of the information they received about the study and that only a minority read through the consent form before signing it. The aim of this study is to determine how physicians, who have been involved in including patients in intervention trials in the early phase of their AMIs, experienced the informed consent procedures. In our view, data obtained from those people who are actually confronted by the research subjects and who are responsible for carrying out the consent procedure should also be taken into account, when the most appropriate ways of including these patients in studies are discussed. To our knowledge no survey of physicians relating to this issue has previously been undertaken.