Why Your Research Ethics Board (REB) Proposalis Likely to be Rejected (or Delayed)
Why Your Research Ethics Board (REB) Proposal is Likely to be Rejected (or Delayed)
Any private organization working in healthcare or biotechnology will, at some point, have to seek research ethics board approval. What many people don’t realize is that a poorly drafted proposal can mean thousands of dollars in wasted funds and months of delayed clinical trials.
No one can afford that.
Research ethics boards are notoriously particular in how proposals are phrased, what they include, the approval of research team members and their training, the storage of data, and so many other crucial but overlooked parts of ensuring the safety of research participants.
While indispensable in protecting individuals and communities, passing through the REB process can feel like running a marathon. Every small mistake or omission in your proposal acts as yet another stumbling block, tripping you up and keeping you from finishing the race. For even the most seasoned runner, enough of these hurdles will cause them to fall.
The three most common hurdles that we see?
Informed Consent Accessibility: Writing the informed consent document as though it is an academic treatise defeats the purpose of seeking informed consent: the participant must be able to understand what is being asked of them.
Overlooked Data Safety: With so much personal healthcare research information being stored online, data safety is a fundamental aspect of REB approval. Overlooking proper storage, destruction, and anonymization of participant data will raise immediate REB red flags.
Administrative Non-Compliance: Although this isn’t necessarily an ethics issue, failure to comply with administrative requirements will require a second submission to rectify the misalignment.
While these issues can carry heavy financial penalties, they are easily avoidable if you know what to look for.
At Hearth Ethics Studio, we’ve developed a pre-submission REB checklist designed to catch these issues and increase the odds of first-round approval.
If you want a copy of the checklist to help prep your next submission, reach out to us via our contact page and we’ll be happy to send you a free pdf.
