The 2023 Advancing Ethical Research (AER23) Virtual conference is hosted by Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research (PRIM&R) “works to ensure the highest ethical standards in research by providing education and other professional resources to the research and research oversight community.”
Myra Luna Lucero, Ed.D., & Kailee Kodama Muscente, Ed.M.presented a poster at AER23 entitled “Small IRB Offices LEAD” on how IRB administrators work through challenges and thrive.
Despite the complexity of research reviews and the abundance of IRB protocol submissions, smaller institutions often lack the resources to hire specialized content experts. Small IRB specialists must lead in many challenging situations.
How to Small IRB Offices LEAD
- Leverage reliable networks
- Effectively harness content experts who already support outreach
- Attune to the research community
- Develop accessible compliance-centered materials with affiliated offices
Small IRB Offices
- Continuously balance research participant protection and ethically mindful research with practical IRB review workloads
- Host weekly hybrid (online/in-person) open office hours on federal, state, city, and local policies, and provide timely responses to the current climate and needs of researchCollaborate with event planners, instructors, and administrators to develop targeted content for researchers specifically entering into the initial research phase
- Design multimodel and dynamic guides to engage researchers’ diverse research interests and conduct quality assessments to gauge responses
Goals for IRB Offices
- Streamline IRB protocol reviews
- Monitor quality assurance and Common Rule compliance
- Support independent, collaborative, and cross-institutional studies that anticipate, prevent and/or alleviate regulatory complications and noncompliance
- Address investigator confusion