Serious Breach Reports: Peter Mac Ethics

Serious breach reporting replaces Protocol Deviation/Violation reporting.

A serious breach is a breach of Good Clinical Practice or the protocol that is likely to affect to a significant degree:

  1. The safety or rights of a research participant, or
  2. The reliability and robustness of the data generated in the research project.   

It is the responsibility of the Sponsor to determine whether any suspected breach meets the definition of a serious breach.

Third parties may report a serious breach directly to the HREC in the following situations:

  • The investigator/institution has good evidence that a serious breach has occurred but the sponsor disagrees with their assessment and is unwilling to notify the HREC
  • The investigator/institution has become aware that the sponsor may have committed a serious breach.

The items below required to be submitted to the Peter Mac HREC by the Sponsor (or delegate) will be acknowledged by the Peter Mac HREC.

The procedure to be followed is provided in the below table: