As we turn the calendars to 2018, here’s a reminder to keep an eye on any deadlines that you must meet with IRB submissions. Remember the UAMS IRB Committee meets on the first four Tuesdays of every month, so there is an “off” week in any month during which there’s a fifth Tuesday. January, May, July, and October are the five-Tuesday months we’re seeing on our 2018 calendar.
And remember that, under current UAMS Inclement Weather policies, the UAMS office is considered a nonessential area, and is not open on inclement weather days when nonessential areas close. If one of those days fall on a Tuesday, we have to cancel that day’s meeting. Sometimes we’re able to make it up later that week, but that involves a lot of scrambling to find a room, finding enough reviewers to meet quorum requirements, etc. So we sometimes wind up having to push that week’s agenda to subsequent meetings, which causes headaches and delays for everybody. We still recoil in horror at that time bad weather forced us to cancel meetings two Tuesdays in a row. That was bad. Really bad.
Inability to find enough reviewers for a quorum can also be a problem around the holidays. If you had a new submission or a continuing review approved since about the middle of November 2017, and know it will need to be reapproved around the same time in 2018, please make a note on your calendar to submit it well before its expiration date next year. If, heaven forbid, we are unable to make quorum the week of Thanksgiving or Christmas next year, and your study expires around then, you’ll be glad you submitted it in time to get reviewed and approved before its expiration.