Because we know you all lie awake at night wondering about the process the IRB uses to create its weekly agenda, we’ve updated IRB policy 6.1, Agenda, to include more details about the process.
A few takeaways from this revised version:
When submissions are ready for full board review, we will put them on the next available agenda. “Available” is a bit of a loaded word here. “Available” means that a) the agenda has not already been closed and sent out to reviewers, and b) that particular committee may not have the correct type of expertise represented on its membership to review a particular study. While we try to make sure all of our committees can review everything, some studies pose special considerations, or the reviewer best suited to a particular submission is unavailable. Also, remember that the IRB is the last office to which a new submission or (sometimes) a modification will be sent, after you’ve submitted it in CLARA. If you submit something on Monday, thinking it will get to the IRB office before the agenda is finalized on Wednesday, it may, in fact, take a lot longer than that to reach us.
One more point about Policy 6.1 for our IRB reviewers: Please review the entire agenda as soon as you can after receipt and let the office know if you have a conflict with any of the agenda items, even those you’re not assigned to review. Reviewers with a competing interest are asked to leave the meeting during the discussion and vote, which can cause us to lose quorum (We’ve got a policy on that too! Click the link to read it.), or leave us with a committee that lacks the qualifications to review a particular project. If we know about conflicts ahead of time, we can try to make arrangements to ensure the meeting can continue.