Most institutions have processes for differentiating between Quality Assurance/Quality Improvement (QA/QI) activities and those that can be considered to be research. Unfortunately, much of the debate about which is which has been driven by regulatory needs, as a categorization of QA/QI leads to a project not requiring ethics committee review, a preference for many where the low risk pathway is still considered burdensome. Avoidance of ethics review for bureaucratic reasons though is a less than satisfactory motive.
In large scale genomics projects a vast amount of the work being done is in the enabling technologies, that is, the sequencing itself as well as the computational methodologies that are at the heart of the bioinformatics that makes sense of the vast quantities of raw data generated. To develop robust and reliable informatics approaches one can run simulations but ultimately they must be done on real data to ensure they are fit for purpose. The question arises then, is using the data generated from a person’s cancer as well as their normal DNA sequence for the purposes of establishing valid computational tools research? On this topic Joly et al (EJHG 2016) provide a perspective with regard to the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC), which has sequenced more than 10000 patient’s cancers from across 17 jurisdictions. The authors of the paper, of which I am one, are members of the ICGC Ethics and Policy Committee (EPC), which provides advice to ICGC member jurisdictions on matters of ethics relating to the program.
Using two activities, both of which are effectively a means to benchmark how variants and mutations are identified in the genome, we explored how a variety of international jurisdictions viewed the activity and whether they were helpful in defining whether it was a QA/QI activity or one that was more properly regarded as research. Both were identified as having potential risks to confidentiality and both wished to publish their findings. For these reasons they ended up being called ‘research’ and underwent appropriate review. However, recognizing that this may create hurdles for such work that are disproportionate to the true risk of the activity, we reviewed jurisdictional approaches to this topic as well as the literature to see if a more helpful framework could be established to guide appropriate review.
The exercise proved particularly useful as it shone a critical light on some of the more widely used criteria, such as generalizability, which whilst being used by many organizations and jurisdictions as a key distinction between research and QA/QI is in fact a flawed criterion if not used carefully. In contrast, risk to a participant stands up as an important factor that must be evaluated in all activities. Four other criteria (novelty of comparison, speed of implementation, methodology, and scope of involvement), were also reviewed for their utility in developing a useful algorithm for triaging an appropriate review pathway.
The paper proposes that a two step process be implemented in which the six identified criteria are first used to determine whether a project is more QA/QI, research or has elements of both, followed by a risk-based assessment process to determine which review pathways is used. Expedited review, or exemption from review, are options for very low risk projects but, as the paper highlighted from a review of the pathways in four ICGC member countries (UK, USA, Canada and Australia), there is no consensus on how to apply this. The challenge therefore remains establishing more uniformity between jurisdictions on the policies that apply to risk-based evaluation of research. Nevertheless, simple categorization into QA/QI vs Research is not particularly useful and a greater emphasis on evaluation based on criteria that define risk of harm to participants is the way forward.
Further reading
Joly Y, So D, Osien G, Crimi L, Bobrow M, Chalmers D, Wallace S E, Zeps N and Knoppers B (2016) A decision tool to guide the ethics review of a challenging breed of emerging genomic projects. European Journal of Human Genetics advance. Online publication. doi:10.1038/ejhg.2015.279
Publisher: http://www.nature.com/ejhg/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/ejhg2015279a.html
ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/291341753_A_decision_tool_to_guide…
NHMRC (2014) Ethical Considerations in Quality Assurance and Evaluation Activities http://www.nhmrc.gov.au/guidelines-publications/e111
Contributor
Dr. Nik Zeps
Dr. Zeps is Director of Research at St John of God Subiaco, Murdoch and Midland Hospitals. He was a member of the Australian Health Ethics Committee from 2006-2012 and the Research Committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) from 2009-2015. He is a board member of the Australian Clinical Trials Alliance and co-chair of the international Cancer Genome Consortium communication committee. His objective as Director of Research is to integrate clinical research and teaching into routine healthcare delivery to improve the lives of patients and their families.
Nikolajs.Zeps@sjog.org.au
This post may be cited as: Zeps N. (2016, 30 June) When is research not research?. Research Ethics Monthly. Retrieved from:
https://ahrecs.com/human-research-ethics/research-not-research