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We, members of the Canadian Respiratory Research Network Long COVID-19 Study, wanted to thank Dr. Murthy et al. for their important commentary highlighting the need to improve Canada’s current research infrastructure to support national clinical research studies. This discussion is critical, particularly in light of the current pandemic, where evidence to inform the assessment and treatment of Canadians with post-COVID-19 condition is needed.
Importantly, Dr. Murthy et al. note Canada’s limited ability to rapidly conduct high-priority research, hindered by the need for separate data-sharing agreements and ethics review at each participating hospital site. We experienced long delays (six months to greater than one year) in receiving ethics and institutional approvals to conduct our low-risk, multi-site observational study evaluating the long-term effects of COVID-19. The main factors that contributed to approval delays included the establishment and approval of data-sharing agreements at each of our 11 study sites (across six provinces) and separate, full board ethics review at five study sites. Differences in local requirements for information technology (IT) and online security, collection of personal health data, recruitment processes, and data storage and retention, also contributed to approval delays.
As noted by Murthy et al., our experience highlights the pressing need to shift Canada’s current approach to multi-site research. Authors wrote: “Those wh...
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