The Research Approvals Processes Project (RAPP) is a provincially-led initiative that supports research within the health system in British Columbia. Health Research BC shares these updates on behalf of the RAPP team.
As discussed in last month’s update, the province is in the process of implementing BC
Shared Health Services (BC SHS), a system-wide move to consolidate administrative and
corporate services from health authorities into one shared organization. BC SHS aligns with
the emphasis on collaboration between government, industry, and academics outlined in
the Look West Strategy, also described in April’s update.
RAPP’s timelines for realizing improvements to health authority research approval
processes, connected to the Look West Strategy, are not aligned with BC SHS’s initial
timelines. Accordingly, several strategic changes have been made to the workstreams
moving forward to provide more rapid improvements.
For the ethics review, RAPP is now focusing on collaborating with the existing Research
Ethics Boards to develop a mandatory single review model. The intended direction of this
work is to drive near-term improvements, understanding that this creates a strong platform
from which to eventually shift to a central ethics board service for BC.
For operational approvals, the RAPP team will be working to improve timeliness of reviews
and reduce researcher burden.
For privacy, contracts and data access, the RAPP team will continue to interface with the
BC SHS team to apply the necessary research lens as they transition to a central service.
