Search results

Transparency, public involvement, safety and proportionality must be at the centre of UK health research, a new position statement published today has demanded.

Studies involving human tissue can improve our understanding of health and disease, and ultimately lead to improved healthcare. But evidence supplied by the UKCRC Tissue Directory and Coordination Centre suggests some tissue in banks goes unused by researchers because it is not adequately linked to patient data or not linked to future health data.

The HRA's Collaboration and Development Manager, Will Navaie, describes how the HRA is looking at ways of breaking down barriers to researchers using biobank resources in the UK.

Three new HRA eLearning modules are now available.

A new initiative to explore how research waste can be reduced has been taken up by two researchers who chair HRA Research Ethics Committees (RECs).

Researchers should not waste time completing inappropriate training, according to updated HRA guidance. Instead, researchers should be appropriately trained by qualifications and experience for their role.

After five years as chair (and several more as a member before that), Dr Mark Taylor is stepping down from the Confidentiality Advisory Group. As Dr Taylor leaves to take on a new role at Melbourne Law School in Australia, he describes how the group gave him a fresh insight into discussions of how the privacy of patients sits alongside the public interest.

We are looking to increase our CAG membership from April 2018. As one of the CAG’s voluntary members, you will robustly assess applications within our regulatory framework and developed principles to advise whether the activity is in the public interest. We are keen to recruit a diverse set of both lay and expert members from a variety of backgrounds. You could be a member of the public, a patient representative, a member of a consumer group, a healthcare professional, or a member of a professional regulatory body or an academic/research institution.

Researchers running or planning projects incorporating the administration of radioactive substances will need to be aware of changes to the approval process.

Health researchers are 'missing a trick' by not demonstrating how patients and the public have contributed to the design and conduct of research, the HRA has said.

NHS England has launched a consultation looking at how arrangements for research in the NHS could be simplified.

A new chair has been appointed to the Confidentiality Advisory Group (CAG). Dr Tony Calland, a former GP and current CAG vice chair of the group, will replace current chair Dr Mark Taylor in January 2018.

Janet Wisely has been awarded an OBE in the New Year Honours list. She is recognised for services to health and social care research.

An updated HRA Approval validation process is being rolled out following successful piloting. We began the roll out of our new validation email templates in early December, with full implementation to all HRA Approval applications expected by the end of February.

HRA chair Jonathan Montgomery will be giving evidence to the Science and Technology Select Committee on Tuesday 30 January.

We are trialling the use of training webinars for researchers and stakeholders who are new to the HRA Approval process. The first is specifically aimed at researchers within universities preparing to submit an application to the HRA and wanting to understand how the process works.

As part of our commitment to continuously improving the support we provide to the research community, we are nearing the imminent roll out of Pharmacy Assurance and Radiation Assurance.

The rules for handling information relating to research participants will change on 25 May 2018, when the new EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into force.

As part of our commitment to continuously improving the support we provide to the research community, we are introducing a process to improve the quality and consistency of research applications involving ionising radiation. As part of this process, we are recruiting a panel of HRA Radiation Assurance reviewers to assist us in reaching our goals and support the UK wide process. These will be Lead Clinical Radiation Experts (CREs) and Medical Physics Expert (MPEs) whose role will be to review studies.

I had an interesting visit to Westminster recently, when I was invited to contribute to the Science and Technology Select Committee’s inquiry on research integrity in relation to the transparency of health and social care research.