The University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center (UNMHSC) is dedicated to continuous quality improvement of its Human Research Protections Program (HRPP). The institution is requesting support to enhance two major aspects of its HRPP. These include training and educational enhancements as well as improvements to its infrastructure to allow better review and storage of materials submitted to the Institutional Review Board (IRB). With respect to educational initiatives, the UNMHSC would like to develop separate web-based training programs for IRB members and to further train investigators and research staff on issues related to IRB responsibilities. Such programs would complement our investigator web-based training, introduced in 2001 to ensure our investigators have a sufficient level of understanding of the issues surrounding the conduct of human research. The institution will invite a nationally recognized consultant to UNMHSC to provide educational sessions on the safe and ethical conduct of human research for both researchers and IRB members. UNMHSC will improve its infrastructure to allow electronic protocol submission, tracking of human subjects protocols and better security for storage of these protocols. Funds are being requested to support the purchase of a Spacesaver High Density File System, Kodak Digital Science Document Scanner, two additional computers and three printers. Support is also being requested to pay for technical and administrative staff to transfer data from the existing IRB database, create electronic applications and forms, purchase and implement an electronic management system, transfer files from the old filing system and digitally scan study files. The UNMHSC Human Research Review Committee Administrative Office has been allocated additional space for its staff. Funds to support the costs of renovation of this space are requested.
