Published 10 December 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a2917
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a2917

Letters

Regulation’s threat to research

Barrier is impossible to leap

The first 100% of the full text of this article appears below.

Getting approval for a simple questionnaire based study has taken me the best part of my four month rotation in breast and general surgery. The study’s aim was to identify areas of weakness in the current breast cancer rapid access clinic and to improve services for patients and their partners. I am no closer to starting my study, and I transfer to the department of medicine in three weeks.

The whole experience has underlined to me how prohibitive, laborious, and bureaucratic attempting to conduct research has become.1 If I ever proposed a study that is invasive or involves drugs, the proposal itself would take me the best part of my core training years.

Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a2917

David G Samuel, F1 surgery1

1 Prince Charles Hospital, Merthyr Tydfil CF47 9TD

daisams@doctors.org.uk

Competing interests: None declared.

  1. Stewart PM, Stears A, Tomlinson JW, Brown MJ. Regulation—the real threat to clinical research. BMJ 2008;337:a1732. (16 October.)[Free Full Text]

Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Powell, D. E B (2009). Regulation of research. BMJ 338: a3140-a3140 [Full text]  
Access jobs at BMJ Careers
Whats new online at Student BMJ