Research is vital to the health sector and more so is the publication of findings of these studies for the well being of the people, says Minister for Health, Dr Neil Sharma.
The Fiji Health Research Portal, which is the result of a joint effort between the Ministry and the World Health Organisation, will provide researchers the platform to publish their proposals and results.
Minister Sharma, while launching the portal, said in the past researchers, who had to submit their research materials in hard copy, came up against many roadblocks.
“A portal takes away a lot of roadblocks to researching, the difficulties researchers face when they want something done for which they have to sit around because their report is sitting with people at the research committee and it is not moving,” he said.
Minister Sharma said researchers will now be able to submit paper in soft copy form and get it registered which will enable interested persons to scrutinise it and for peers to review it.
The papers will need to be vetted first by the Fiji National Health Research Ethics Review Committee (FNHRERC) which will pay particular attention to human research to ensure accurate results are published.
The portal will provide public access to a registry of all the approved and ongoing research in Fiji from November 1, 2013 and a directory of domestic and international researchers doing health related research in Fiji.
WHO representative, Dr Clement Malau said it was important to concentrate research efforts towards priority areas and national health requirements.
“Research and development is a key thing that WHO promotes because we realise that health information and research are critical things that can change or break health- unless this is not in place, systems cannot be improved,” he said.
The system will be beneficial to researchers, people living abroad who want to know what type of research is being carried out in Fiji and by Fijian students studying abroad.
National Health Research Unit officer, Mrs Mere Delai said the portal will take away duplication that used to happen when information was not shared.
She said the Ministry now has the expertise and will be working together with the Fiji National University’s College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, and the FNHRERC in maintaining the portal.
Beginning January 1 2014, all the health researchers in Fiji must submit their research proposals online for review by the college and the FNHRERC and it can be viewed on http://health.gov.fj/fijihrp/
In 2013, close to 100 research proposals were submitted.
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