Overview
Initiative type
Model of Care
Status
Deliver
Published
June 2026
Summary
Supporting Metro South Health (MSH) staff to develop clear, complete and high-quality research documentation, reducing avoidable delays and improving researcher experience.
Dates: December 2024 - December 2025
Implementation sites: Translational Research Institute, Metro South Health
This project was presented as a poster at CEQ Showcase 2026 (PDF 2.8MB).
Aim
To enable MSH staff to design and document high quality, ethically sound research through early, practical development support that improves study submission readiness.
Outcomes
144 researchers supported in the first 12 months of service operation (Jan 2025 – Jan 2026).
224 total support requests delivered, across protocol development (113), document preparation (48), ethics applications (18), research governance (15), information and consent forms (15), project planning (12) and grant, budget and other advice (3). Health service-wide
support, engaging all MSH facilities, including PAH (88), QEII (18), Logan/Beaudesert (17), Redland (9), AMHS (4), and COH (4). Excellent feedback from clinicians using the service: 90–96% “very satisfied” across all satisfaction domains including communication,
helpfulness, accuracy of advice and overall experience. 100% positive qualitative feedback, with multiple users reporting improved success with ethics.
Background
linical excellence is achieved through the delivery of high quality, evidence-based health care. Health research helps clinicians turn frontline questions into high quality evidence that supports continuous improvement across our learning healthcare system. By identifying and generating safe, high-quality care and improved patient outcomes, research is a foundational bedrock that underpins clinical excellence. MSH have enshrined research as one of six objective pillars that define the health service’s strategic plan, 2024-2028 (MSH, 2024). Acknowledging that innovation, research and translation are integral parts of our health service, MSH recognises the need to develop the skills to embrace and drive research.
Research development support builds clinician capability and confidence, supports engagement in research, and enables time poor clinical staff to participate in research. In December 2024, MSH appointed two temporary Principal Research Development Officers (PRDOs) to address a recognised barrier across the organisation: staff frequently had strong research ideas but lacked time, confidence, or methodological expertise to develop high quality, ethically sound proposals. These challenges often resulted in incomplete documentation, repeated ethics revisions, and significant frustration for clinicians attempting to initiate research alongside clinical duties.
Beginning 1 January 2025, the PRDOs established a new service designed to support research development from the earliest stages - clarifying research questions, shaping study design, advising on feasibility, and preparing documentation such as protocols, participant information and consent forms, human research ethics applications, and risk assessments. The service aimed to increase staff capability, improve the completeness and clarity of submissions, and reduce avoidable delays in ethics and governance review processes. The PRDOs
implemented a prospective activity tracking system to understand service demand and usage patterns.
Over the first 12 months, 144 researchers engaged with the service across all MSH facilities, encompassing diverse professions and project types. The background data highlight both the need for and the value of a dedicated research development function. The service addresses a clear gap between clinical expertise and research methodology and supports MSH’s strategic priorities by enabling staff to generate high quality research that informs practice and drives clinical excellence. By providing equitable access to research support across all MSH facilities, the service embodies the clinical excellence showcase theme: Workforce Without Walls.
Methods
This initiative was implemented as a structured, iterative research development support model delivered by two Principal Research Development Officers from December 2024. Activity data and evaluation data were collected prospectively.
Service delivery model The service provided tailored, one on one support through: *
- Refining research questions and aligning methods to aims
- Protocol development and review
- Human research ethics application support
- Documentation preparation including Patient information and consent form, risk assessment and management plans, and governance guidance
- Study planning, writing support and general troubleshooting. Support is delivered in a flexible manner, allowing for iterative interactions per project, ensuring flexibility for busy and time poor clinicians. Interactions are delivered according to clinician preference in terms of format (face-to-face/online), time and level of required input.
ACTIVITY TRACKING A structured activity tracker records service utilisation, including referral sources, study investigator designation, facility of origin, support categories, and number of interactions. Over six months, 144 distinct researchers engaged with the service, generating 224 total support requests. Engagement came from all Metro South Health facilities. EVALUATION To assess service impact, a mixed methods evaluation was undertaken in August 2025. A satisfaction survey was distributed to 50 service users, with a 94% response rate (47 responses). Quantitative items assessed satisfaction, alignment with strategic goals, and contribution to research culture, while qualitative comments explored strengths and improvement opportunities.
The evaluation found exceptionally high satisfaction: 92–96% were “very satisfied” across domains of communication, helpfulness, accuracy, and overall experience. Users strongly agreed (76–84%) that the service supports MSH’s research and innovation goals. Users also strongly agreed/agreed that the service upheld MSH’s values: Integrity, Compassion, Accountability, Respect, Engagement, Excellence Thematic analysis of comments left demonstrated strong appreciation for clarity, responsiveness, and the value of early research development support. Several researchers reported achieving ethics approval after earlier unsuccessful attempts, attributing their success to the service. Qualitative feedback consistently emphasised the desire for the service’s continuation and expansion.
Discussion
The research development service proved highly effective in its first year and demonstrates strong potential for scale and spread within Queensland Health. The service filled a well-documented gap: staff had research ideas but lacked time, guidance and methodological support to produce strong, ethics ready submissions. By providing early, expert input, the service significantly improved the clarity and completeness of research protocols, ethics applications and reduced confusion for novice researchers. By embedding contemporary research infrastructure and ensuring the MSH research workforce is supported, the research development service also embodies the MSH Research and Innovation Strategy 2025-2030 (MSH 2025) and epitomises a ‘Workforce Without Walls’.
Critical factors for success
Key enablers included:
- A simple, high value proposition (“early support saves time later”)
- Flexibility of support interactions for time poor clinicians – help when and where clinicians needed it
- High accessibility and responsiveness from PRDOs
- Expertise spanning both research design and ethics/governance expectations
- Strong alignment with MSH strategic goals and values, confirmed by user feedback.
Lessons and limitations:
Although satisfaction was uniformly high, users reported that the service is not yet widely known. Earlier engagement will optimise impact, and promotion across MSH facilities is needed. Evaluation to date focuses on activity and user perception. In the future we aim to incorporate system level performance indicators, such as number of ethics revision cycles and time to approval. Our ultimate goal being to demonstrate
impact downstream and the direct impact research has on clinical excellence: research outputs and translation into practice.
Scalability across Queensland Health: The model is easily replicable in other Hospital and Health Services because it:
- Uses existing workforce and builds internal capability.
- Integrates naturally with ethics and governance workflows.
- Addresses universal challenges faced by clinicians conducting research.
- Demonstrates immediate value with minimal setup requirements. Other Hospital and Health Services with similar barriers; time poor clinicians, fragmented research experience, or inconsistent documentation quality, could benefit from and are in the process of adopting our model.
Next steps:
Priorities include broadening awareness of and growing the service. The findings to date clearly indicate that the service improves researcher experience, strengthens documentation quality, and contributes to a more research enabled health service
References
Metro South Health’s Strategic Plan 2024-2028 (MSH, 2024). MSH Research and Innovation Strategy 2025-2030 (MSH 2025) MSH Culture and Values (MSH 2026)
Key contact
Dr Liam Maclachlan
Principal research development officer
Translational Research Institute
Metro South Hospital and Health Service