Fig. 3

Time of initial ethics application processes. Applications are numbered and sorted according to the total time of the initial ethics application process. Initial ethics application processes are described for (a) 23 Cross-Sectoral Platform (SUEP) applications for university hospital ethics committees, (b) 12 SUEP applications for state medical association ethics committees, and (c) 11 High-Resolution Platform (HAP) ethics applications for university hospital ethics committees. The initial ethics vote of a state medical association applied in each case to the first nonuniversity site in the respective state. Ethics applications were submitted to 12 state medical associations. The following sites joined the vote