Bridging Research and Quality in Healthcare
Clinical quality registries, low risk research and quality improvement and assurance activities are essential components in improving clinical care and service delivery and embedding research in healthcare.
The challenges in identifying when activities require formal ethics review and oversight; and ‘disentangling’ research from quality activities, characterised as the ‘grey zone’, are not limited to Australia. Harmonisation of ethics and governance processes remains an elusive goal, particularly for multi-site research projects which continue to experience delays, duplication, and inefficiencies.
A key priority to emerge from the Victorian Clinical Research Governance Streamlining Initiative (VCRGSI), led by the Victorian Research Translation Centres (Monash Partners, Western Alliance, and Melbourne Academic Centre for Health), is the need for proportionate review pathways including definitions, processes and infrastructure for low-risk research and quality improvement activities. Stakeholder feedback confirms these projects absorb a disproportionate amount of time and effort in Research Offices, which could be redirected to improve research broadly through equitable resource allocation.
The aim of the Bridging Research and Quality (BRaQ) in Healthcare initiative is to develop a system-wide approach to improving ethics and governance processes for low-risk research and quality activities. Read about the progress made by the BRaQ Initiative here:
1.-BRaQ-Exploring-the-Problem.pdf
3.-BRaQ-Guiding-principles-for-evaluating-and-improving-care.pdf
The second BRaQ in Healthcare Summit was held in February 2026, and included over 100 participants from research and quality units across Victorian health organisations and universities.
Stay tuned for further updates coming soon.
