Perspectives from the Research Ethics Committee

Perspectives from the Research Ethics Committee
At the heart of our profession lies a steadfast commitment to the rights, safety, and well-being of all clinical trial participants. Our adherence to these principles is rigorously evaluated by Independent Ethics Committees (IECs), making their perspectives invaluable to our work. That’s why the second TOPRA IN Scotland meeting of the year will focus on understanding the expectations and insights of those who assess our ethical conduct.




When:  18 June 2025
Where: The Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Centre, 25 Palmerston Place, Edinburgh, EH12 5AP
Time:    14:00 - 17:00


We’re delighted to welcome guest speakers from the Scotland A and B Research Ethics Committees, who will share their experiences and reflections on the evolving landscape of clinical research ethics covering both CTIMPs as well as Medical Device studies.

In a special addition to our usual format, we invite you to submit questions and topics of interest in advance for consideration by our invited speakers. This is a unique opportunity to engage directly with REC members to gain deeper insights into their decision-making processes. Submit any questions or topics of interest by 09 June via the TOPRA Engage platform or by connecting with Neil McDonald or Graham Bell via LinkedIn.
 
Key topics will include:
          •       The role of diversity and inclusion in clinical research, in light of the latest HRA/MHRA guidance
          • The growing importance of public and patient involvement in the ethics review process

Key Speakers:
Dr Helen Newbery
Helen runs the South East Scotland Research Ethics service, based in Edinburgh. The service comprises four RECs, which include those flagged to review Clinical Trials (CTIMPs), Adults With Incapacity (in Scotland) and Medical Devices. She brings a longstanding interest in Medical Ethics from her previous academic research career focusing on the genetics of cancer and neurodegeneration, and was also a member of an NHS REC before taking up her current post.

Manx Neill
Manx has worked as the Manager of Scotland A & B REC’s for 9 years. She brought to the role her 33 years’ experience of general and mental health nursing and her experience as a mental health advocate. She was able to pursue her interest in ethics and long-term behavioural change through attaining her MA (Joint Honours) in Philosophy & English Literature and her post-graduate studies in Environment, Culture & Society. Her past work and study areas have allowed her to hone her analytical, communication and writing skills, which are vital to her role as REC Manager.  She advises staff, committee members and researchers on Adult With Incapacity (AWI) processes and requirements for application submissions.

Mrs Anne Forster
Anne is a Lay Member of Scotland A & B REC and a retired Life Assurance Product Development Manager. The analytics skills she gained working in the financial sector are now applied in her role as a Committee member when reviewing applications. Through her other roles as a volunteer team lead for Edinburgh Food Project’s (EFP) Broughton distribution centre and active member of their youth engagement team, Anne meets & interacts with a diverse range of people. This has allowed her to hone her communication and presentation skills and she now applies these when presenting reviews to other Committee Members and when meeting and asking questions of applicants, to address any queries that the Committee have during the Committee meetings.

Professor Brian McKinstry
Brian is a former general practitioner and Emeritus Professor of Primary Care eHealth at the University of Edinburgh. He leads SHARE the Scottish Health Research Register (www.registerforshare.org) and until recently he led the Telescot programme of research into telehealth (www.telescot.org) His research interests are mainly around remote information exchange between clinicians and patients, more recently focussed on eHealth and telehealthcare. The Telescotprogramme carried out multiple randomised controlled trials and descriptive/qualitative studies in this area. These studies include telemonitoring of chronic obstructive airways disease, heart failure, COVID, high blood pressure (HBP) and diabetes, remote measurement of cough and respiratory rate, the use of machine learning on patient accrued data to develop improved telemonitoring algorithms and video-consulting in general practice. His work often bridges the gap between clinical practice and technological innovation, ensuring that the digital health solutions are practical and beneficial for both patients and health care providers.  More recently he was clinical lead for the roll-out of Connect-Me a large-scale implementation of telemonitoring of BP in Scotland and now the biggest such in the world.  With colleagues he is exploring the use of routinely acquired data to evaluate the impact of BP telemonitoring on cardiovascular outcomes. He is also involved in ScotHeart2 a large RCT exploring the impact on cardiovascular outcomes of cardiac imaging in higher risk patients.
When
18/06/2025 14:00 - 17:00
Where
The Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Centre 25 Palmerston Place Edinburgh EH12 5AP UNITED KINGDOM
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