Auckland District Health Board promotes and adheres to the principles of ICH-GCP (Good Clinical Research Practice)  guidelines. As an international clinical research site, ADHB’s human subject protection programme is accredited to receive US federal research funding. These combined capabilities attract expert clinical staff and promote an academic approach based on the highest ethical standards and focused on applications that improve health outcomes.

Research activities at ADHB employ a range of methods to answer questions about health and healthcare delivery.   These include epidemiological studies, clinical trials, outcomes research and operational studies.  Many research projects at ADHB involve collaboration with university researchers both within New Zealand and around the world. Many investigators are world leaders in their field, performing studies that have contributed to the
development of cancer drugs and emerging genetic treatments, the advancement of neuroscience, surgery, paediatrics, molecular medicine, epidemiology of stroke and cardiovascular disease and the understanding of hearing disorders, diabetes and preterm labour. ADHB also hosts and supports student research at both the tertiary and specialist post doctoral level from across all disciplines. 

ADHB’s Research Office facilitates a close working relationship between researchers, clinical staff, ethics committees, funding bodies and commercial sponsors. The Research Office maintains a research database (REACH), with over 500 current projects with a total registry of 3,000 since 1966. The Research Office assists researchers to prepare protocols, ethics applications and supports the development of budgets. It acts as the entry point for the approval of all research at ADHB. The Research Office’s website, www.adhb.govt.nz/ResearchOffice, provides a national resource and acts as a small clearing-house for information about funding, sponsors, resources, courses and contacts.

The Children’s Research Centre (CRC) was established with the purpose of assisting researchers and encouraging new
researchers in conducting research that aims to benefit children’s health. More information about the CRC, follow
this Link.

19 February 2013
A+ Trust Research Grant Funding Round
A+ Trust Research Grants offer contestable research funding by the Auckland DHB Charitable Trust. The aim is to support ADHB researchers from all disciplines / specialties to undertake research across the health spectrum from patients to population, disease to prevention, and service delivery to cost effectiveness and beyond. Applications will be assessed based on scientific merit, feasibility including soundness of rationale and methodology, ability to deliver and opportunities to develop the capacity of new researchers / practitioners in clinical research.

A+ Trust Research Grant is available to any ADHB employee, allocation of funding is prioritised to:

1- New and emerging researchers with the aim of helping to develop and foster research capability within ADHB.

2- Research to be conducted within ADHB with the potential to benefit ADHB patients in the short to medium term.

3- Applications from researchers with limited access to other funding streams (e.g. surpluses from commercially sponsored trials in departmental pool funds).

Two types of funding are available:

1) Project Grant (maximum of $30,000)
2) Small Project Grant (maximum of $10,000)

Please contact Genevieve Morris (extn: 23852), (Genevieve.Morris@adhb.govt.nz) for an application form, budget and guidelines.

Deadline for receipt of applications at the Research Office is
4pm on 1st April or 1st October Annually

1 Oct 2012

Health and Disability Ethics Committees (HDEC) Post-approval process

Do you need to submit any of the following notifications about your research project?

• Progress Report

• Amendment
• Protocol deviation or violation
• SAE
• Notification of conclusion
• Final Report

This process is now electronic via New Zealand Online Forms for Research (https://www.ethicsform.org/Nz/Signin.aspx)

Use the below link to access detailed instructions on how to submit a Post-Approval Form.

http://ethics.health.govt.nz/sites/ethics.health.govt.nz/files/documents/pages/mdf-and-paf-instructions.pdf

Please remember to always inform your Research Office study coordinator about any updates on the ethical approval of your projects.

3 Aug 2012
Expect delays as the MoH Ethics Committees roll out online forms
The following guidance was received from the MoH Health and Disability ethics committees’ homepage for their online application system.

Unfortunately the introduction of new form types in Online Forms will be slightly delayed. We now expect that you will be able to:

• Log applications submitted prior to 1 July 2012 using the Minimal Dataset Form (MDF) from Friday 17 August 2012
• Submit amendments, progress reports, and other post-approval items using the Post-Approval Form (PAF) from Friday 17 August 2012
• Use Online Forms to submit new applications to SCOTT from Friday 31 August 2012.

If ADHB is a locality for your study you will need ADHB approval from the Research Office (RO) before you can commence the research. This approval is conditional upon ethical approval except where the research is exempt from requiring ethical approval (see the HDEC SoPs). When you have completed your ethics application you need to request ADHB as the Locality via the Authorisations tab for the application. You will be asked for an email address – please use our generic RO inbox (researchoffice@adhb.govt.nz ) and NO other. We will “authorise” your study with the HDEC system when all ADHB approval requirements are in place (i.e. the day you receive your ADHB approval letter). 

Research applications reviewed via the HDEC full review pathway require evidence of favourable peer review. If your project has not had such review, approval by the ADHB Research Review Committee (RRC) will satisfy the HDEC in most instances. In this situation you will need to submit your study for RRC review prior to submitting for HDEC review. If RRC supports your study the RO can provide you with a letter to this effect, that you can upload with your ethics application.

Although we are in the process of updating our RO SoPs to capture the recent changes with HDECs, our ADHB research approval requirements have not materially changed. I reiterate that your study will not be given ADHB approval, and HDECs will not be notified that this locality is approved, until all standard requirements are in place.

Please look out for more updates from us on the new HDEC process - we will endeavour to keep you informed of future developments. The link to the HDEC online portal is below: https://www.ethicsform.org/nz/SignIn.aspx