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Hospitals across Simcoe Muskoka and Grey Bruce have launched the Central Ontario Research Ethics Board (CO-REB), a shared partnership that will help hospitals and healthcare providers advance research and innovation closer to home. Research plays an important role in improving care, testing new ideas, and giving patients access to opportunities that may not otherwise be available through standard care. From clinical studies and innovative technologies to new approaches for delivering care, this work helps continually improve the quality of care provided today while shaping the future of healthcare for years to come. CO-REB provides formal oversight for research involving human participants, helping ensure studies are carried out safely and in line with the highest ethical standards. This oversight protects participants and builds public trust by upholding people’s rights, dignity, and well-being. Through CO-REB’s shared model, participating hospitals have access to a shared ethics review process for studies across participating hospitals, saving time and cost while supporting consistent research oversight. The initiative builds on the existing Research Ethics Board at Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre (RVH), expanding it into a regional model supported by shared governance and participation across the founding hospitals, including Brightshores Health System, Collingwood General and Marine Hospital, Georgian Bay General Hospital, Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare, and RVH. “This is an exciting step forward for hospitals, researchers, and communities across our region,” says Dr. Nancy Trimble, retired family doctor and CO-REB Chair. “When hospitals work together, we can create sustainable pathways for patients to access research opportunities closer to where they receive care.” CO-REB was created to support research in community hospitals, where more than 65 per cent of the province’s hospitalized patients receive care, but where access to formal research systems has often been limited. While health research has traditionally been concentrated in large academic centres, community hospitals are playing an increasingly important role in clinical trials, frontline and bedside research, and real-world innovation. By establishing a single, shared REB across partner hospitals, CO-REB helps advance locally relevant studies across Central Ontario. “Community hospitals are essential to expanding Ontario’s clinical trials ecosystem, but they need practical infrastructure that helps them participate efficiently and consistently,” says Susan Marlin, President of Clinical Trials Ontario (CTO), an organization established by the Province of Ontario in 2012 to make Ontario a preferred location for global clinical trials. “By supporting shared ethics review across community hospitals, CO-REB helps make more sites trial-ready, reduces duplication, improves study start-up, and maintains strong protections for research participants.” The CO-REB framework has been designed to grow over time to support other hospitals and healthcare teams. As additional partners join, CO-REB will help build a more connected regional research ecosystem and create stronger pathways for rural and smaller communities to shape research that reflects what matters most locally.
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