About SA Health
SA Health is the brand name for the South Australian Government’s Department for Health and Wellbeing, which is the health authority, responsible for delivering and coordinating public health services across the state. Through its Local Health Networks (LHNs), public hospitals, and research offices, it supports high-quality health and medical research across the South Australian public health sector. Research activity is managed by multiple metropolitan and regional research offices, creating a complex environment for coordinating ethics and governance reviews across a statewide network.
As SA Health’s research activity grew, so did the complexity of managing ethics approvals, governance authorisations, and post-approval oversight across a distributed, multi-site network. SA Health needed a single, all-in-one research management platform to standardise processes, reduce administrative burden, and provide system-wide visibility across the entire research lifecycle.
The challenge
SA Health’s research offices and their Human Research Ethics Committees (HRECs) managed ethics and governance through a fragmented mix of manual workflows and processes, disconnected systems and various localised practices. With no unified system of record, coordinating submissions, reviews, and approvals across multiple committees and Local Health Networks was time-consuming and difficult to oversee at a whole-of-system level.
Researchers faced an inconsistent experience, using an antiquated online portal to register applications. This portal lacked the ability to track the progress of applications or submit post-approval correspondence such as progress reports, adverse event notifications and project amendments. Administrative teams, meanwhile, managed this volume of work without the reporting tools they needed to monitor review timelines, measure performance, or meet internal and external accountability requirements.
SA Health needed a proven, powerful platform that could standardise research management across the entire public health sector. It needed to support the full research lifecycle, from initial ethics and governance applications through to post-approval management, while giving administrators the flexibility to configure forms, workflows and reporting as requirements evolve.
The solution
SA Health selected OmniStar as its statewide research management platform, deployed as Research GEMS, SA Health’s Research Governance and Ethics Management System. OmniStar is delivered as a secure Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution, hosted on Information Security Registered Assessors Program (IRAP)-compliant Amazon Web Services (AWS) infrastructure on Australian soil, giving SA Health a single, authoritative system of record for ethics review, research governance, and post-approval monitoring.
An overarching project registration model captures core information for new studies, determining what applications to generate and populating information automatically to reduce duplication for researchers. SmartForms technology provides a guided experience for researchers completing their ethics and governance applications, while configurable workflows automate the review and approval process for the responsible research offices.
After approval, the platform manages ongoing obligations such as progress reports, adverse event submissions, protocol deviations and amendments, all within the same system. SA Health’s own authorised administrators configure forms, workflows and notifications using the SmartForms Designer, with real-time dashboards providing visibility for both staff and managers within South Australian research offices.
Before OmniStar, managing ethics and governance applications across our Local Health Networks meant relying on disconnected systems and manual processes, with no single view of application statuses or ongoing study management activities. OmniStar brought it all together, giving our team the visibility and structure to manage research activity consistently across the entire SA Health research ecosystem.
Stephen Shillabeer Manager Research Systems, Office for Research, Department for Health and WellbeingThe outcome
OmniStar gave SA Health a single, statewide platform for managing the full research lifecycle, replacing fragmented, manual processes with a standardised, end-to-end solution that supports researchers, research offices, HRECs, and administrators across the SA Health research ecosystem.
SA Health consolidated ethics reviews and research governance across its four HRECs and ten Local Health Networks, replacing inconsistent, site-specific practices with a single, uniform approach. Researchers gained one online portal to submit applications, track progress, and manage post-approval obligations, supporting more than 900 ethics and governance submissions each year. Automated workflows and SmartForms cut manual handling and duplication for research office staff by an estimated 40%.
Real-time dashboards and flexible reporting give administrators system-wide visibility over submission volumes, review timelines, and performance, supporting both internal governance and external accountability. SA Health’s authorised administrators also configure forms, workflows, and system settings independently, reducing reliance on the vendor for ongoing changes. Underpinning it all, IRAP-compliant AWS hosting on Australian soil ensures data sovereignty, privacy compliance, and a platform that scales with SA Health’s growing research activity.
Standardising research management across a statewide network is no small undertaking. OmniStar provided the platform to do it, delivering the visibility, compliance, and operational efficiency that a public health research environment demands.
Ben Shores Director, South Australian Medical Education and Training / Office for Research, Department for Health and WellbeingWhy you should try OmniStar
Unified platform
Ethics reviews, research governance and post-approval administration consolidated into a single, enterprise-grade research management system, accessible to researchers, research office staff, committee members, and administrators across SA Health’s statewide network.
Standardisation
Consistent ethics and governance processes established across SA Health’s Local Health Networks and HRECs, replacing fragmented, site-specific practices with a single, uniform approach.
Enterprise grade security
All research data hosted exclusively on Australian soil within IRAP-compliant AWS infrastructure, meeting SA Health’s privacy, security, and data sovereignty requirements.
Operational efficiency
Automated workflows, configurable SmartForms and an overarching project registration model significantly reduce manual handling and duplication of effort for researchers and research office staff.
Governance and compliance
Structured, audit-ready workflows across SA Health’s Local Health Networks and HRECs, with version control, digital approvals, and comprehensive audit trails supporting internal and external accountability requirements.
Streamlined researcher experience
A single online portal for submitting ethics and governance applications, tracking progress, and managing post-approval obligations, reducing friction for researchers across the SA public health sector.
Sunway University
OmniStar Ethics tailored the system to align with Sunway University’s unique needs, wants and budget.
NRM South
OmniStar has provided NRM South with a comprehensive Research and Project Management System to improve quality, efficiency, and reporting of project activities.
National Health and Medical Research Council HREA
OmniStar Ethics was pivotal in the NHMRC’s system transformation for ethics application submissions.
The Department of Resources (Queensland)
OmniStar has provided the Queensland Government’s Department of Resources with a user-friendly and flexible one-stop shop for grants management that has improved workflows and compliance reporting.
The University of Western Australia
Using OmniStar, UWA was able to shift from an outdated paper-based research management system to a fully integrated, digital solution that could evolve with the university's growing compliance requirements.
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