Towards better health research in Australia — a plea to improve the efficiency of human research ethics committee processes

To the Editor: Population health and clinical researchers have long endured time-consuming submission of applications for a single study to multiple human research ethics committees (HRECs), which each have their own application forms and processes. Each HREC form collects similar information, with slight variation but much repetition. They invariably differ in emphasis and space provided, precluding a simple cut-and-paste among forms. The resource burden of completing this step in the research process has been highlighted previously.1,2 Rarely does completion of multiple applications add value.