Wong, Swee-Ling
Ricketts, Kate
Royle, Gary
Williams, Matt
Mendes, Ruheena
Article History
Received: 26 October 2016
Accepted: 16 March 2018
First Online: 11 April 2018
Ethics approval and consent to participate
: No consent or research ethics committee review for approval was required as confirmed by the Health.Research Committee Service as research fits the criteria of “Research involving previously collected, non- identifiable information” which states that “Research limited to secondary use of information previously collected in the course of normal care (without an intention to use it for research at the time of collection) is generally excluded from REC review, provided that the patients or service users are not identifiable to the research team in carrying out the research.” No administrative permissions were required in order to review patient records and use the data as they fit the additional criteria that “This exception also applies to research undertaken by staff within a care team using information previously collected in the course of care for their own patients or clients, provided that data is anonymized or pseudonymised in conducting the research.”
: Not applicable. All patient data has been anonymized with no details on individuals reported within the manuscript.
: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
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