During the first day of the 2019 Advancing Ethical Research Conference, I had the good fortune of hearing Janine Austin Clayton, MD, from the Office of Research on Women's Health, an NIH organization that was created with the goal of finding answers on why certain diseases affect women more than men. The data she shared on health gaps between men and women should spark a fire in all of us to encourage our government and employers to do more. Read more
The IRB at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point is quite small, and I was curious, in attending AER19 and connecting with other HRPP professionals, how we compared with other small institutions. As a young professional in a single-staff IRB office, I was also looking for tricks of the trade to improve my limited capabilities and address challenges that arise. Clear communication with campus stakeholders and planning small improvement objectives are effective measures when working against challenges like budget, capacity, and misconceptions. Read more
"Protecting human subjects is more than IRB review." The 2019 Advancing Ethical Research Conference session "Use It or Lose It- Recalibrating and Re-Engineering the HRPP/IRB Office in Response to the Changing Regulatory Climate" began with a statement we HRPP professionals know, but sometimes need to hear as a reminder to advocate for the needs of both the Human Research Protection Program (HRPP) and IRB Office. The lines often blur between the roles of the HRPP and those of the IRB, and for the most part our jobs involve responsibilities that cover both. Read more
How does your organization view noncompliance investigations? Are they seen as an opportunity for learning and growth? If we are honest, many of us would not volunteer to learn or grow our HRPPs through a noncompliance investigation. We want to get through it and hope it does not occur again. That is wishful thinking and is not the wisest approach to addressing and mitigating noncompliance. The AER19 session, “How to Investigate, Mitigate, Report and Learn from Noncompliance—Avoiding Pitfalls and Seizing Opportunities for Improvement” inspired me to believe that there can be a bright side through the process of noncompliance investigations. Read more
Just by reading this title you probably have guessed that I am a big Star Wars Fan. We are a special breed, one that grew up with the movies and who like to complain about changes to the original saga. I will save you from my opinion on whether Han truly shot first or not, but as the last movie of the Star Wars franchise was released, I cannot help but notice some parallels between the journey of a Jedi and the work of an IRB professional working with single IRB studies.
A Jedi in these movies is a reluctant student, one forced to learn the ways of the Force due to the [...] Read more
