Human Research Ethics Committee

We support ethical, high-quality health and medical research at St John of God Health Care.

Our Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) is central to this effort.

HRECs review research proposals involving human participants to ensure they are ethically acceptable and meet relevant standards and guidelines.

Our HREC welcomes submissions from internal and external researchers and reviews both single site and multicentre research proposals.

Our committee reviews the full spectrum of human research including:

  • clinical trials of new medications, devices and clinical interventions
  • qualitative studies measuring patient satisfaction and quality of life
  • 'human quality improvement projects', focusing on improvements in clinical processes.

Research topics that we review cover multiple clinical disciplines – for example, oncology, orthopaedics, obstetrics, mental health, nursing, anaesthesia, cardiology, gastroenterology, palliative care, pathology and population health.

Once the proposed St John of God Health Care site/s have deemed your proposed project feasible, the site will provide you with authorisation to submit an application for ethical review.

All submissions to the HREC (new studies, amendments and reports) should be made using the online St John of God Health Care Ethics submission form.

For more information, refer to the St John of God Research Handbook.

Contact us

By phone or email

Tel: 08 6116 0542
Email: [email protected]  

Via our Executive Officer

St John of God Health Care HREC
PO Box 5753, St Georges Terrace
Perth WA 6831

By online enquiry

We will respond to your enquiry within two working days.

More about us

  • We are certified by the National Health and Medical Research Council as a Lead HREC in Australia and operate as a single, central HREC for St John of God Health Care.
  • You only need to apply once for your research to be reviewed by our committee if you are intending to undertake research across more than one of the hospitals or services provided by St John of God Health Care.
  • All research projects submitted to us must be developed in line with the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Research Involving Humans.
  • Our committee adheres to the Code of Ethical Standards for Catholic Health and Aged Care Services in Australia.