Quality activities may be undertaken and led by GCHHS staff members. If you're planning to submit a manuscript for publication or to present findings to an external audience, you may require evidence of HREC endorsement and registration.
Publishers and conference organisers are increasingly requesting evidence of ethical oversite before work is accepted. These expectations align with the current direction of national research bodies such as the National Health and Medical Research Council which recommends certain activities have a level of ethical oversite.
The following steps will assist you in obtaining the relevant HREC endorsement and registration for your work:
To register your QA/QI activity, contact GCQualityAdmin@health.qld.gov.au or phone (07) 5687 2064, and they will refer you to the appropriate Quality Coordinator contact.
Complete all sections of the QA/QI, Clinical Audits, and the HREC form and obtain a signature from the Head of Department in section 11b.
To upload the QA/QI, Clinical Audits, and the HREC form using Ethics Review Manager, follow these steps:
- Login to Ethics Review Manager.
- Select the tile Create Project from the list of Actions on the left-hand side.
- Enter the Project Title, choose Queensland Health as the jurisdication and LNR Form as the Main Form type, then select Create Project.
- Select PRE LNR QUESTIONS to begin completing the form and complete the questions as prompted
- For question 2, please choose the Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service Human Research Ethics Committee (EC00160) to ensure that you submit the project to the GCHHS HREC for review.
- Please ensure you list all project team members under question 4a. The Primary Applicant should be listed as the Principal Investigator and must be a GCHHS staff member. List additional project team members as Associate Investigators.
- Once you complete the LNR Form, with all supporting documents uploaded, the Coordinating/Principal Investigator should complete the Signatures and Declarations page and sign the form. You can do this electronically (recommended) or alternatively, print the form, obtain the "wet-ink" signature, and upload the page to the LNR Form.
- Select the Submit tile from the list of Actions on the left-hand side and follow the prompts. This will submit the application to the GCHHS HREC Office for processing.
If your project is endorsed as QA/QI, the project will be registered with the HREC and you will be provided with a letter that can be used for publication purposes.
Your Quality Coordinator contact, provided by GCQualityAdmin@health.qld.gov.au, will provide you with the outcome report to complete after you have finished your QA/QI activity.
If you do not wish to publish your Quality activity, contact GCQualityAdmin@health.qld.gov.au or phone (07) 5687 2064, and they will provide you with:
- your Quality Coodinator contact to register your activity
- the Quality Improvement Activity Project Plan to complete and submit
- the outcome report to complete after you have finished your QA/QI activity.
