Challenges in obtaining research ethics and governance approvals for an Australian national intersector, multisite audit study.

ConclusionFurther improvements are needed to reduce duplication and increase the efficiency of Australian ethics and governance review processes.What is known about the topic?The process for obtaining ethics approval for multicentre research has been streamlined through the introduction of single-site ethics review. However, the process of gaining ethics and governance approvals for national multicentre research continues to be time-consuming, resource-intensive and duplicative.What does this paper add?This is the first study to examine the challenges of obtaining ethics and governance approvals for a non-interventional multicentre study involving three health sectors (hospital, aged care, general practice), both private and public services and all eight Australian jurisdictions. Previous examinations of Australian multicentre studies have considered only one health sector, focused on the public system and/or were not national in scope.What are the implications for practitioners?Researchers and funders need to be aware of the considerable time, resources and costs involved in gaining research ethics and governance approvals for multicentre studies and include this in budgets and study timelines. Policy makers and administrators of ethics and governance review processes must address barriers to conducting multicentre research in Australia. PMID: 32943137 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Australian Health Review - Category: Hospital Management Authors: Tags: Aust Health Rev Source Type: research