Ms Lisa Fry1
1Barwon Health, 2LaTrobe University
Research Governance plays an important role in mitigating the risks associated with clinical research and ensuring research merit and rigour. However, responsible research oversight should not compromise efficiency. The global Covid 19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of clinical research and the urgent need for fast clinical trial results. One barrier to timely research startup is the heterogeneous nature of research governance processes for both inter and intrastate multisite studies. Variations across institutions for meeting research governance requirements create significant administrative burdens, confusion and heavy workloads for researchers and ultimately impact timeliness and efficiency. Lack of resources, staffing and IT platforms in smaller rural and regional sites can exacerbate delays in research governance for multisite projects.
In this presentation we describe issues that create challenges for research governance processes and propose solutions which could lead to greater harmonization of research governance.
Problem:
- Research governance burdens act as a barrier to research participation for rural and regional sites
- Limited resources and personnel at regional and rural sites
- Inconsistencies in governance requirements across sites
- Research governance oversight that is not proportionate to actual governance risks
- Inefficient systems and processes
- No regional reviewing HREC
Possible Solutions:
- Research Governance Risk Matrix for Proportionate Governance Review
- Accepting centralized governance review of multisite regional research
- Governance Guidance for Executives of regional healthcare institutions
Impact: A research ethics and governance system fit for purpose for multi-site regional research could improve efficiency and address the current administrative burdens for researchers and administrators, resulting in greater participation of rural and regional sites in clinical research.
Biography:
Bio to come