MQ Health Clinical Innovation and Audit Committee (CIAC)

MQ Health Clinical Innovation and Audit Committee (CIAC)

The MQ Health Clinical Innovation and Audit Committee (CIAC) was established to provide organisational oversight of clinical innovations, quality assurance activities, clinical audits, case studies and the introduction of new interventions, including devices to MQ Health and to ensure those are reviewed and supported by evidence of safety, effectiveness, and financial governance.

Please refer to the Research or innovation decision tool for guidance.

If you determine that your project is an audit, quality assurance, innovation, or new intervention, you need to apply for approval by CIAC.

Please download and complete the following CIAC forms and submit electronically to clinical.innovation@mqhealth.org.au.

CIAC reporting

You must submit a CIAC Report Form on the anniversary of your project approval date, or when your project finishes. Please complete the report form and submit electronically to clinical.innovation@mqhealth.org.au.

What is the difference between research and audit?

A clinical audit is a way of finding out if health professionals are doing what they should be doing. Are we following guidelines, and are we using best practice? 

Key differences between audit and research include:

  • Research creates new knowledge about what works and what is best; a clinical audit tells us if we are following current best practice.
  • Research can involve patients trying an untested treatment method; clinical audit never involves patients trying new treatment methods.
  • Research may involve a degree of experimentation on patients; clinical audit never involves anything happening to the patient which is different from their normal treatment.
  • Research may involve allocating patients to different treatment groups; clinical audit never involves allocating patients to different treatment groups.
  • The results from research are generalisable; clinical audit results are applicable within local settings only.
  • Research involving staff, patients, their tissue or data, or facilities and equipment requires approval by a human ethics committee; clinical audit rarely requires ethics approval.

Library Resources for MQ Clinical Innovation & Audit Committee (CIAC) - https://libguides.mq.edu.au/clinical_innovation_audit_committee

Definitions

AUDIT AND QUALITY ASSURANCE ACTIVITIES (QA) - Such activities aim to identify and quantify what is currently being done (or not done), and/or the extent of a problem, practice or behaviour to gain knowledge that may then be used to improve a service or practice.

INNOVATIVE SURGICAL PROCEDURE - An innovative surgical procedure (technique or device) is any procedure that meets 1 or more of the following criteria: the technique/device used is new or differs from the standard technique in 1 or more of the following ways: altogether new, new to anatomical location, or new to patient group.

NEW INTERVENTION - A new intervention is a procedure not previously performed within Macquarie University Hospital, but performed in another hospital. This will include variations to an existing treatment, a new medication or device or a new process introduced to deliver health care.

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