Out of the frying pan? Streamlining the ethics review process of multisite qualitative research projects.

This paper describes the ethics approval processes for two multicentre, nationwide, qualitative health service research projects. The paper explains that the advent of the National Ethics Application Form has brought many improvements, but that attendant processes put in place at local health network and Human Research Ethics Committee levels may have become significantly more complicated, particularly for innovative qualitative research projects. The paper raises several questions based on its analysis of ethics application processes currently in place.

Patient perceptions of carrying their own health information: approaches towards responsibility and playing an active role in their own health - implications for a patient-held health file.

Objective: To elicit patients' views on whether they could contribute to improvements in their care by carrying their own health information to clinician encounters; and to consider the implications for the development of a patient-held health file (PHF).

Background: Increasing rates of chronic disease lead to health care being delivered by multiple care providers often at distributed geographic locations. As a way of increasing the availability of patient information to care providers our project will trial a PHF.

The National Open Disclosure Pilot: evaluation of a policy implementation initiative.

Objective: To determine which aspects of open disclosure "work" for patients and health care staff, based on an evaluation of the National Open Disclosure Pilot.

Design, Setting And Participants: Qualitative analysis of semi-structured and open-ended interviews conducted between March and October 2007 with 131 clinical staff and 23 patients and family members who had participated in one or more open disclosure meetings. 21 of 40 pilot hospital sites, in New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria and Queensland, were included in the evaluation.