Defense Health Agency Streamlines Research Oversight Compliance Published June 5, 2014 By Michael A. Parker Defense Health Agency Public Affairs WASHINGTON -- Whether the topic is preventing sexual assault, suicide or substance abuse, Department of Defense researchers are pushing the boundaries in the fields of behavioral and social science, conducting groundbreaking studies and surveys that benefit Americans as well as people overseas every day. Though the public may see just the final product of this hard work, there are important checks and balances behind the scenes that must be followed before research and studies involving human subjects can be published or presented. The Defense Health Agency, located in Falls Church, Virginia, established its Research Regulatory Oversight Office to ensure compliance with DoD's ethical and regulatory requirements for research activities involving humans and animals. Military researchers and investigators in the areas of behavioral and social science work with the Research Regulatory Oversight Office to check off every component of compliance - a long and complicated process. The Research Regulatory Oversight Office, along with the Defense Health Agency Privacy and Civil Liberties Office, has launched a new web tool to standardize the way military researchers and investigators obtain the compliance information and documents needed to ensure the publication of their work. The innovation is part of the Defense Health Agency's efforts to modernize and streamline Military Health System capabilities. The Privacy, Information Collection, Human Research tool aggregates all compliance information and data necessary for conducting research into one online platform, and is being hailed as a large step forward in simplifying navigation of the approval pathways for researchers, investigators and DoD. "Before ... researchers would have to make three or more separate phone calls and visit multiple websites," said Public Health Service Capt. John Eckert, acting director of the Research Regulatory Oversight Office. "Now we have a one-stop shop with general guidance that will answer over 90 percent of the questions researchers would ever have on regulatory matters." The Privacy, Information Collection , Human Research tool functions as a drop-down tree to lead researchers through a series of questions, which vary at each step depending on the response. Once all of the questions are answered researchers are redirected to a page with an organized list of the information, documents and all other applicable materials needed to ensure DoD regulatory requirements are met. On average this process can be completed in less than 10 minutes. These are vital checks to ensure standards are being satisfied for their particular activities related to privacy, information collection and human research. "It's common for investigators to overlook some research compliance checks without even realizing it - a misstep which can bar them from publishing or presenting their findings," said Eckert. The Privacy, Information Collection, Human Research tool "lends researchers an ease of mind, so they can focus on the work at hand, not the red tape." This new tool is available and can be accessed on the Military Health System website.