Our research

Evidence based healthcare

We do research to help us decide how we cover injuries and fund treatments. We call this evidence based healthcare (EBH).

We find and assess current international research about what causes injuries and how effective treatments are. From there we make recommendations to guide our purchasing and cover decisions.

Our research methods

We base our EBH methods on those of the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine and the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network.

Centre for Evidence Based Medicine
Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network

Research on treatments we fund

We have two types of documents that cover our research into medical treatments.

Evidence based reviews

This research collects evidence and assesses the effectiveness and safety of a medical treatment.

Purchasing guidance

Purchasing guidance summarises an evidence based review and recommends if we should pay towards that medical treatment.

Research on injuries we cover

We have two types of documents that cover our research into injuries.

Causation and risk factor reports

These reports look at the risks and causes of different types of injuries. They help us decide which injuries to cover.

Reports on injury prevention and other aspects of injury

This research assesses strategies to prevent injuries and how well they work. It sometimes looks at other aspects of injury, eg living with the effects of an injury. 

Find our research

You can find our evidence based healthcare research from the last five years in our resource hub:

View our research in the resource hub

If you want more information about our reports or access to our older ones, email our research team:

Email research@acc.co.nz

Ethics Panel

The Ethics Panel safeguards the rights, interests and safety of our customers. It supports and enables high-quality ethical projects for social, cultural and economic wellbeing. The Panel also works to reflect the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi.

About the Ethics Panel

The Ethics Panel is an advisory group set up to protect the rights and interests of ACC customers when they are asked to be involved in projects, or their data or personal information is used in projects to make decisions on services or entitlements.

Customers include injured people, treatment and rehabilitation providers, business customers/levy payers and the general public of New Zealand.

The Panel reviews:

• cultural considerations – including ensuring that the project reflects the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi
• disability considerations – ensuring that disabled people are included and can meaningfully contribute to the project
• methodology and design of the project, e.g.  ensuring bias is not introduced, and that participants can provide informed consent
• processes to ensure data and personal information are kept safe
• processes to manage health and safety of the people involved in the project, eg processes to address issues disclosed by participants, manage any distress that participants might experience and manage the safety of staff involved in the project.

Projects need ethical advice from the Panel if they involve:

• advanced analytics or artificial intelligence for decision making affecting customer entitlements or services, and/or
• direct contact with our customers, e.g. through co-design or human centred design, and/or
• surveying or interviewing our customers, eg through research or evaluation, and/or
• requesting or using identifiable ACC data.

We follow the National Ethical Standards for Health and Disability Research and Quality Improvement. You'll find information on the standards on the National Ethics Advisory Committee website.

National Ethical Standards for Health and Disability Research and Quality Improvement

External members

Prof Tim Dare (Chair)

Tim Dare is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Auckland.   He worked briefly as a lawyer before doing his PhD in the philosophy of law and starting his academic career in the early 1990s.   His publications include books and articles on the philosophy of  law, legal ethics, immunisation programmes, the significance of judicial disagreement, parental rights and medical decisions, the proper allocation of the burden of proof, and the use of predictive analytics in child protection. He is employed by New Zealand’s Ministry of Social Development to provide data ethics advice and to develop privacy, human rights, and ethical review processes for proposed uses of client data.  He has provided ethical reviews of a number of predictive risk modelling tools in New Zealand and the US. He sits on a number of local and national research and clinical ethics committees. He is principal investigator on a NZ Royal Society Marsden Grant (2019-2021) investigating the ethics of using predictive risk modelling tools in social policy contexts.

Richman Wee

Richman is currently the Senior Research Fellow for the NZ Law Foundation-funded Technology in Legal Education (TeLENZ) Project Te Piringa - Faculty of of Law, University of Waikato. He has two decades of legal ethics experience, including advising on research applications and initiatives that cross traditional research boundaries. Richman was previously the Chair of the Multi-Region Ethics Committee, appointed by the Minister of Health, and brings vast legal and data ethical knowledge to the ACC Ethics Panel.

ACC members

• Privacy Officer

• Representative from the Clinical Services Directorate

• Representatives from Strategy, Policy & Research

• Representative from Māori & Cultural Capability Services

• Representative from Analytics & Reporting

• Representative from Customer Insights

• Representative from Information Technology & Architecture

Terms of reference

The terms of reference define the purpose, governance, roles and responsibilities of ACC’s Ethics Panel.

ACC Ethics Panel terms of reference

2024 meeting dates

Meeting date	Apply by
14 February	6 February
13 March	5 March
10 April	2 April
8 May	30 April
12 June	4 June
10 July	2 July
14 August	6 August
11 September	3 September
9 October	1 October
13 November	5 November
11 December	3 December

Engaging with the ACC Ethics Panel

Your project will be reviewed by the secretariat. If your project is considered higher risk, then the Ethics Panel may require you to attend a Panel meeting to discuss your project. If your project is considered lower risk, then it may be reviewed by internal Panel members, with feedback given to you via email.

Fill out an application form and email it us.

Ethics Panel Application Form

If you’re unsure whether you need the ACC Ethics Panel to review your project, or if you have any questions about the application form then email us.

Email ethics@acc.co.nz.

Costs of supplying data and recruiting clients

If we accept your data request, we may charge you for the cost of supplying data or recruiting clients for your research. These costs include printing and postage of letters and information to customers, as well as any other costs incurred through the research.

Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI)

ACC has been actively exploring the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI) in different areas. To ensure the safe and effective use of Gen AI, ACC created a Corporate Policy for the use of Gen AI, and established the Generative Artificial Intelligence Advisory Group . This group provides oversight and guidance on the ethical implications, ongoing improvement, and overall impact of Gen AI in ACC over and above the established security and privacy controls already in place. ACC is committed to the ongoing improvement of our Gen AI capabilities, with the goal of enhancing our services and delivering better outcomes for clients.

Contact us

If you have a question or want to use our clients or data for research:

Research and Evaluation team
Email research@acc.co.nz

If you only need data that doesn't identify our customers for your research:

Team Manager Response 
Email datarequest@acc.co.nz

To submit an application to the Ethics Panel:

ACC Ethics Panel Secretary
Email ethics@acc.co.nz