Short description of RECs system:

There are about 26 ethics committees (ECs) in Austria including 9 federal state regional ECs and a number of local ECs. For multi centre drug trials 7 so called 'leading ECs' may provide a single opinion: EC of the Medical University of Vienna, EC of the City of Vienna, EC of the Medical University of Innsbruck (Federal State Tyrol), Medical University of Graz (Federal State Styria), EC of the Federal State Lower Austria, EC of the Federal State Upper Austria, EC of the Federal State Salzburg.

The 3 university ECs are established under the University Act, most of the others under the Hospital Acts of the provinces (federal states).

In 8 of the 9 states (Vienna is city and state) the EC of the state (Landes-Ethikkommission) is also responsible for research outside of hospitals (according to the Drug Act and the Medical Devices Act). Only in one state (Styria) an EC is established solely for research outside of hospitals under the Drug Act and the Medical Devices Act.In Vienna the university EC is responsible solely for the university hospital and the EC of the city of Vienna serves as state EC (responsible for other hospital of the City of Vienna = State of Vienna) and for research outside of hospitals. In Tyrol the university EC (Innsbruck) serves also as state EC and is responsible for research outside of hospitals. In Styria the university EC (Graz) is responsible for the university hospital and for all other state hospitals, but not for research outside of hospitals.Aside from the university and the state ECs there are smaller ECs responsible for only one (non-state) hospital and one EC was established by the Association for Clinical Pharmacology (Österreichische Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Klinische Pharmakologie und Therapie und Institut für Hypertoniker).The supervising authority for the ECs is the Federal Office for Safety in Health Care (Bundesamt für Sicherheit im Gesundheitswesen).

Networking between RECs:

Since 1997 the Austrian ECs are represented by the 'Forum of the Austrian Ethics Committees'. It provides a list with 26 ethics committees, registered with the Forum and which use and accept the forms and guidelines, distributed by Forum.

The Forum provides a basis for exchange of experiences and for the harmonisation of the functioning of the ECs. It issues forms for the communication with the ECs as well as guidelines on various topics.

In 2000 the Forum initiated an annual advanced training course for members of ethics committees which is organised by the Centre of Ethics and Medicine of the Lower Austria State Academy (Zentrum für Ethik und Medizin der Niederösterreichischen Landesakademie).

Moreover, the Forum serves as contact for the legislative and the supervising authorities. The organs of the Forum are the general assembly and the board. The general assembly meets once a year during the annual Forum meeting, board meetings are scheduled once or twice a year.

External Link

http://www.ethikkommissionen.at/