Background
Established in 1997
The Community Research Ethics Board of Alberta (CREBA) [formerly the Community Health Research Ethics Review Committee (CHRERC)] was established in 1997 by the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research (AHFMR), with the help of Dr. John Dossetor of the Provincial Health Ethics Network (PHEN). CREBA is constituted in accordance with the Tri-Council Policy Statement on Ethical Conduct for Research involving Humans, September 1998, and is committed to adherence with this statement.
Purpose
The purpose of CREBA is to prospectively review for ethical acceptability, health research involving people and/or their health information in Alberta. In this role, CREBA fills a gap in the province by providing a forum and process for the review of health research being conducted in any health region, organization or authority that does not already have a duly constituted research ethics review Committee and process.
Other Research Ethics Boards
CREBA fills a gap in the Province by providing review of health research being conducting in any region, organization or authority that does not have a duly constituted health research ethics board and process. For more information see Terms of Reference.
CREBA's Focus
Because of the nature of research studies under review, CREBA pays attention to the impact of research on communities as well as individuals. The members include representatives of various health disciplines and regions, people with expertise in law, ethics, and theology, and community members. On an ad-hoc basis the committee includes local members of the community for their perspective. At the present time, the costs of the ethical review process are underwritten by AHFMR, and researchers are not charged a fee for the review.
To our knowledge, CREBA is the first community-based REB of its kind in Canada.
See also: