Eastern Health Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) is constituted in accordance with the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research (NHMRC 2007).
This means that the HREC consists of the required number of members who fit the recommended criteria as stipulated in the guidelines.
Additionally the Eastern Health Human Research Ethics Committee has been certified by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) since February 2012. – as we have ongoing certification.
Updated Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) are currently being developed and are expected to be available online April 2023. If you have any urgent questions, please contact our office [email protected]
Consent to participate in research must be voluntary, and based on sufficient information and adequate understanding of both the proposed research and the implications of participation in it. The requirement for consent may sometimes be justifiably waived. In this case research participants will characteristically not know that they, or perhaps their tissue or data, are involved in the research.
Only an HREC may grant waiver of consent for research using personal information in medical research, or personal health information.
For the period 1 July 2023 – 30 June 2024 one waiver of consent was granted by the Eastern Health HREC.
What are Registries?
A registry is an organised record-keeping system for health-related information. The main purpose of a registry is to keep track of what is happening in healthcare and help make it better.
There are three types of registries:
Clinical Quality Registries (CQRs):
Their main job is to watch how well treatments work and report on it. They use quality indicators to check if care is safe, effective, and timely. Examples include registries for intensive care, emergency departments, and specific diseases (like cancer).
Condition/Disease Registries:
These focus on collecting details about people with specific health conditions. For instance, there are registries that track cancer cases or outcomes for stroke.
Drug/Device/Product Registries:
These are used to monitor the safety of drugs, devices, or products over time. They might also share quality information with hospitals and doctors.
What Data Do Registries Collect?
Registries can collect many different types of data, such as:
Clinical Information: Vital signs, diagnoses, and treatments.
Demographic Information: Age, gender, occupation, and where you live.
Outcomes: How patients do after specific treatments.
All of this data gets organised, analysed, and shown in reports for doctors, researchers and the public. The reports do not identify individual patients.
The Office of Research and Ethics
The Office of Research and Ethics was established in 2010 under the leadership of the inaugural Director of Research. Personnel of the Office provide:
- administrative support to the Eastern Health Research and Ethics Committee
- research support to the Eastern Health research community
- monitoring and governance of on-going research at Eastern Health