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CCTCC Research Ethics Board Accreditation Working Group Final Recomendations

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The purpose of this message is to introduce the CCTCC REB Accreditation WG’s Final Recommendations (FRs), and the joint response by the CCTCC and Health Canada (HC) to the FRs. 


The full package is available here.
 
CCTCC REB WG FRs:
 
There are seven FRs in total, aimed at ensuring Canada’s REB competitiveness on a global scale. FR#7, which calls for the establishment of a National Strategic Leadership Forum, is seen as the foundation of the other FRs. The FRs are based on data collected through interviews with key stakeholders in the Canadian and US REB fields as well as consultations and feedback provided by key REB stakeholders in Canada.
 
Background:
 
The CCTCC REB Accreditation WG was established in 2015, in collaboration with Health Canada, to identify strategies to improve efficiencies of ethics reviews and advance strategic issues like accreditation in regards to clinical trials. The establishment of the WG is consistent with Recommendation #4 of the Action Plan to Help Attract More Clinical Trials to Canada as well as Recommendation #3 of the Senate Report entitled “Canada’s Clinical Trials Infrastructure: A prescription for Improved Access to New Medicines”.
 
Given the REB centralization and harmonization initiatives that have been taking place across Canada, the WG, as stated in their Interim Report (IR), did not see formal accreditation scheme as a given. The IR’s key recommendations called for investigating the:

  • impact of these provincial initiatives
  • models of review being adopted by these initiatives,
  • standards and metrics currently being applied to REB operations (in Canada and USA)

The WG proceed with addressing the IR’s recommendations which resulted in the presented/attached FRs.
 
The contents of the full package include:
 

  1. Summary of the FRs and joint response by CCTCC and HC
  2. Full text of the FRs.
  3. SPOR SHRER Report Committee recommendations – in fulfillment of FR I


CCTCC and Health Canada wish to express their profound gratitude to the members of the REB Accreditation Working Group (WG) and specifically the chair of the WG – Laurel Evans and the co-chair Karine Morine for their continued dedication and invaluable efforts in making the attached report a reality.
 
Please direct any questions to Elena Aminkova, Interim Director of Project Facilitation, CCTCC by emailing eaminkova@cctcc.ca

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