In September, 2002, the Department of Health and Human Services awarded Cedars-Sinai Medical Center (CSMC) a grant to develop an Electronic Human Subject Protection Program (eHSPP). CSMC is working with Webridge, Inc., vendor of the Webridge Compliance Extranet, to further develop the eHSPP to address the need for continuous quality improvement in human subject protection programs. This current project proposes to use components of the Webridge system to strengthen and expand our existing programs in education and quality improvement, while also allowing us to offer educational opportunities to colleagues at other institutions. An inter-institutional coalition is being established, with the charge of developing a comprehensive quality improvement program that addresses the requirements and challenges related to the conduct of human subjects research. The collaborative effort will result in the development of educational materials and resources that can be transmitted electronically to all participating sites, using the Campaign Manager component of the Webridge system. This technology will create targeted email communications that will be sent to recipients chosen by the system administrator. Users of the system will have access to a webpage, which will highlight materials developed by the participating institutions. Other reporting and tracking components of the Webridge system will be used to assess the need for improvement in existing practices. Additionally, the collaboration will support ongoing educational efforts, such as the CSMC IRB Grand rounds and workshops, and make these and related educational opportunities available to IRB members, IRB staff and researchers at our collaborating institutions. Project activities will include consortium development, software development, collaborative educational programs, collaborative quality improvement, and sharing of best practices. CSMC will provide staff and organizational support for the collaboration, initially to include CSMC, St. John's Health Center, and Memorial Health Services. The establishment of such a collaborative network will benefit all participating organizations and will lead to improved quality and efficiency in our human subjects research protection programs.
