The University of Utah seeks funding to expand and enhance the administration of human subject oversight and the education of faculty and staff at the University of Utah and Utah State University. The funding provided under the first RFA (OD-01-003) was used to purchase the Webridge software, necessary hardware for this product, and to provide staff compensation for initial design and implementation. Webridge will permit the IRB and other research compliance offices to become """"""""paperless"""""""" within the next year. This round of funding will will build on this work to allow the University of Utah IRB to fully implement this product and to enhance faculty and staff education at the University of Utah and Utah State University.
Our specific aims : 1. IRB members will be provided laptop computers to facilitate use of the web-based tools, including both the Webridge product, and IRB related communication and education. We will undertake a research-based approach to this aim. Initially 2 of 4 IRB panels will be provided laptop computers and their use, including efficiencies, benefits, barriers, and frustrations will be compared with their baseline and with the traditional paper-based panels. 2. The IRB educational efforts will be enhanced by adding the University of Miami CITI Human Subjects in Research Training Modules to our website. This training will be required for all investigators, IRB members, and research staff members at the University of Utah. It will also be available for all faculty and staff members at Utah State University. The University of Utah also will use this grant funding to establish on-going collaboration between the University of Utah and Utah State for education of faculty and staff on research integrity issues through seminars, lectures, courses and case-based discussions. 3. An automated adverse event tracking and review process will be created to allow a subcommittee comprised of IRB members to review adverse events according to expertise and report these findings to the IRB Chairperson for final action.
