To the Editor: Hicks and colleagues are to be commended for reporting the benefits of the single ethics review system for multicentre trials in reducing the time taken for review, reducing unnecessary duplication of effort, and standardising documentation.1 They based their analysis on the overall time to approval, which included both an ethics and a governance component.
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- Cancer Council Australia, Sydney, NSW.
- 1. Hicks SC, James RE, Wong N, et al. A case study evaluation of ethics review systems for multicentre clinical trials. Med J Aust 2009; 191: 280-282. <MJA full text>
- 2. NSW Health. FAQ: Australian Research Ethics Database (AU RED). http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/ethics/research/faq_aured.asp (accessed Dec 2009).