33rd Annual Scientific Meeting of the Society for Academic Primary Care

Running through an exciting fabric of high quality scientific and educational presentations was the thread of research governance. It is clear that the time, effort and bureaucracy required to meet the exacting standards are becoming ever greater. It is a matter of time before these outweigh the potential benefits of new planned research. One team had to obtain formal approval from 59 research management and governance organisations to conduct a straightforward postal survey — a process that took 5 months and was still not completely successful. While no researcher doubts the value of research governance, at this conference there was a clear need expressed to streamline the process. This could begin by the agreement between the organisations involved of common standards and approaches, and a widespread commitment to the avoidance of duplication. Otherwise, primary care research, whose growing health was demonstrated in Glasgow, is under serious threat.

• © British Journal of General Practice, 2004.