Study types and flow

A clinical study can only be initiated after approval from the authorised ethics committee and the completion of a Clinical Trial Agreement (CTA), in case various other legal entities are involved. Please see the flowchart below for an overview of the authorised bodies and/or authorities in relation to the type of study.

If you wish to organise a study at Maria Middelares General Hospital or St Vincent General Hospital in Deinze, you need to register with the team that will preferably conduct the study. The contact information from the various study departments can be found at our team page. Please contact the relevant study service. The request will be reviewed internally and the research department (or representative) will respond with feedback to your request.

Only available in Dutch:

Studietypes

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Only available in Dutch:

Benodigde documenten

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Documents for requesting advice from the ethics committee of Maria Middelares General Hospital

Please see below for an overview of the necessary documents to be submitted to the EC with the Maria Middelares General Hospital. Choose the applicable request document:

• Request form:
  
  • Interventional, academic study (Document A - type 1)
  • Interventional, industry-sponsored study (Document A - type 2)
  • Retrospective study (RWE application form): Dutch or English
  • Prospective, observational study (Document C)
    
  • Master's or Bachelor's theses (Document D)

• Explanations and approval form (not applicable for retrospective studies)
• CV and GCP certificate investigators
• Study protocol
• Questionnaires
• Attestation of faultless liability insurance (not applicable for retrospective studies)
• (Proposal for) Clinical Trial Agreement
• The recommendation of the DPO when the EC with the Maria Middelares General Hospital acts as LEC and/or when the Maria Middelares General Hospital/physician is the responsible party for processing (project manager)
• Financial identification document (document E) (only for industry-sponsored studies)

• Once these documents are completed and signed, they will be e-mailed to the study coordinator of the research department to which you have applied. They will forward the documents to the EC.
• The study coordinator will receive a confirmation within 3 business days via e-mail once the EC has properly received the documents. If the study is independent, start the EC evaluation procedure. This will take 25 days
• The investigator is given 60 days (2 months) to formulate a response to the EC's comments.
• The modified documents are delivered to the EC both in a version with track changes and in a clean version with a modified version date.
• If no notification is received by the deadline, this application file will be closed without any advice given.
• The approval will be communicated in a letter via e-mail.

Data Protection Officer (DPO) documents

• In a monocentric study or multicentric study where the Maria Middelares General Hospital is the lead ethics committee (EC), the recommendation of a local data protection officer (DPO) is required. A favourable recommendation from the DPO must be obtained before the application can be submitted to the EC.
  
• In a multicentric study, where the Maria Middelares General Hospital is not acting as the lead EC and is not a data protection officer, the recommendation of the local DPO is not required.

The DPO's advice is always required if Maria Middelares General Hospital General Hospital or St Vincent General Hospital in Deinze is a responsible party.

A request for advice is made using the designated template, which is provided by the study coordinator of the research department concerned, along with the protocol, informed consent form and any questionnaires, to the DPO (Data Protection Officer) responsible for checking whether the study complies with GDPR regulations. Any comments will be sent by e-mail.

If the Maria Middelares General Hospital is the data protection officer, a processing agreement with any external processors is required. See here for a template:

• Processing agreement NL
• Processing agreement ENG

Study Agreement or Clinical Trial Agreement (CTA)

At a minimum, the contract will be tripartite (three contracting parties: the sponsor, physician investigator and the hospital). A contract template can be requested through the study coordinator of the relevant study department.

During the study, there are some things that need to be communicated to the EC. These things include serious side effects (SAEs), amendments (even if our EC is not the LEC), an annual progress report of the study and the cessation of the study. An amendment can be requested no earlier than three months after the last approval. For this purpose, an e-mail may be sent directly to the EC and the study coordinator in CC. Do not forget to include the MMS number with all correspondence with the EC