Welcome to CAREB - Bienvenue a l'ACCER

Ms. Grabowski,

On behalf of the Canadian Association of Research Ethics Boards (CAREB) Board of Directors and our membership across Canada, I would like to submit the attached (see below) response to the call for comments on the Canadian General Standards Board (CGSB) Draft National Standard for Research Ethics Boards reviewing biomedical clinical trials regulated by Health Canada.

The CAREB Public Affairs Committee established a working group to develop the response on behalf of CAREB and this initiative was led by Janet Manzo (Board of Directors member) and Richard Neuman (Public Affairs Committee member). The working group membership is as follows:

Co-Chairs:
* Janet Manzo - Executive Director, Ontario Cancer Research Ethics Board (Toronto, ON)
* Richard Neuman - Professor Pharmacology (retired) and former Co-Chair of Human Ethics Committee, Memorial University (St. John's, NL)

Members:
* Judith Abbott - Senior Administrative Coordinator, University of Alberta Biomedical REB (Edmonton, AB)
* Albert Clark - Chair, Health Sciences REB, Queen's University (Kingston, ON)
* Patrick Clifford - Manager, Professional Practice, Southlake Regional Health Centre (Newmarket, ON)
* Gordon DuVal - The Research Ethics Project, Consultant (Ottawa, ON)
* Toni Fletcher - Manager, Office of Research Ethics, University of Western Ontario (London, ON)
* Pia Ganz - Manager, Clinical Ethics, University of British Columbia (Vancouver, BC)
* Julie Gibson - Director, Clinical Research Services, The Hospital for Sick Children (Toronto, ON)

I would like to thank Janet and Richard and all the working group members for their hard work and dedication in coordinating the CAREB response which includes the feedback of many contributors who are committed and engaged to improving the research ethics system in Canada.

Sincerely,

Alex Karabanow
CAREB President