The IRB has cancelled its meeting scheduled for December 27th, due to a lack of available members that day. That’s the day after the UAMS Christmas holiday and, like many of the rest of us, our reviewers have other commitments that week. Our blog item of Nov. 22 mentioned the possibility of no IRB meeting that week, you may recall.
There will also be no IRB meeting Jan. 31, 2017, as that’s a fifth Tuesday. And do keep in mind that when UAMS calls an inclement weather day, the IRB office closes, which leads to canceled IRB meetings when those inclement weather days hit on Tuesdays. That happened two Tuesdays in a row once. That was pretty grim.
All this to say — please plan ahead when you’re facing IRB or review approval deadlines.