NSW takes lead in reducing barriers for clinical trials

The NSW Office for Health and Medical Research (OHMR) is undertaking a project to reduce barriers to conducting clinical trials in the state and is conducting a survey to help reform the health and medical research pre-approvals process and improve the Research Ethics and Governance Information System (REGIS).

The proposed reform initiatives are outlined in a discussion paper which can be viewed here. The OHMR is inviting feedback on these reforms through completion of the survey, which can be accessed here.

Options for change include policy, structural and process reforms. Participants will be asked to prioritise each option as a Must, Should, Could or Won’t Do. There will be an opportunity to provide additional suggestions and comments for each of the options. Some are straightforward while others require further exploration as the details are unclear at this early stage. Further feedback will be sought as the reform options are refined.

The purpose is to highlight the most important areas of reform for different stakeholder groups. OHMR may contact participants to clarify comments or to seek consent to use quotes or comments in the final report. Only the OHMR team will have access to the identified responses for the purpose of data analysis and no identified or potentially identifiable information will be included in any report without consent.

Only survey responses submitted online will be accepted. The survey is open until the close of business on 12 December 2013.

Participants may request a PDF copy of the survey questions for convenience if collating responses on behalf of an organisation or group.

For more information, see http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/ethics/Pages/survey-and-discussion-paper.aspx.