Case study reports & exemptions

Case study reports

Authors who want to write up a case study report on an Alfred Health patient and present or submit this for publication must read the guideline Publication of Case Study Reports. The guideline is located on the Alfred Health Intranet. Select Polices & Guidelines (PROMPT) and search for Publication of Case Study Reports. The guideline is also applicable to a case series report.

Where consent is to be obtained, the Case Study Report Consent Form should be used.

Research that can be exempt from review

If the research has negligible risk* and involves the use of existing collections of data that contain only non-identifiable data**about humans, ethical review may not be necessary.

To request an exemption, please submit an application-by-letter/email addressed to the Manager, Ethics & Research Governance and email it to research@alfred.org.au. The letter should provide all details to justify a waiver of the requirement for ethical review.

Research that has negligible risk but does use data that could possibly identify individuals is not exempt from ethical review.

*Research is ‘negligible risk' where there is no foreseeable risk of harm or discomfort; and any foreseeable risk is no more than inconvenience. Where the risk, even if unlikely, is more than inconvenience, the research is not negligible risk.

**Non-identifiable data is data that have never been labelled with individual identifiers or from which identifiers have been permanently removed, and by means of which no specific individual can be identified.

A subset of non-identifiable data are those that can be linked with other data so it can be known they are about the same data subject, although the person's identity remains unknown.