General Discussions

We recently had one of our IRB Committee Members submit an IRB submission.  The study had to go to the Full Board for review.  This member was not present for the meeting. I take meeting minutes outside the system and then attach them to the meeting afterwards.  However, once I attach these minutes, this committee member will have access to the minutes and the discussion of her study, right?  What has been the best practice for this situation?

Thank you.

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Leigh Schectman
IRB Coordinator
California Lutheran University
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Good point. We just started using Cayuse and have not used it for a board meetings yet. We have a lot of board members that submit research. 

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Tina Aubut
Human Research Protections Assistant
University of Southern Maine
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Original Message:
Sent: 06-15-2023 08:35
From: Leigh Schectman
Subject: Review of an IRB Submission by an IRB Committee Member

We recently had one of our IRB Committee Members submit an IRB submission.  The study had to go to the Full Board for review.  This member was not present for the meeting. I take meeting minutes outside the system and then attach them to the meeting afterwards.  However, once I attach these minutes, this committee member will have access to the minutes and the discussion of her study, right?  What has been the best practice for this situation?

Thank you.

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Leigh Schectman
IRB Coordinator
California Lutheran University
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Hi Leigh,

The system should automatically block the member from viewing the minutes. There is a block that appears on our version when a member is on the committee and also noted as research personnel on our studies. If that shows on your platform, then you should be ok. 

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Alicia Scott
IRB Director
The Chicago School of Professional Psychology
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Original Message:
Sent: 06-15-2023 08:35
From: Leigh Schectman
Subject: Review of an IRB Submission by an IRB Committee Member

We recently had one of our IRB Committee Members submit an IRB submission.  The study had to go to the Full Board for review.  This member was not present for the meeting. I take meeting minutes outside the system and then attach them to the meeting afterwards.  However, once I attach these minutes, this committee member will have access to the minutes and the discussion of her study, right?  What has been the best practice for this situation?

Thank you.

------------------------------
Leigh Schectman
IRB Coordinator
California Lutheran University
------------------------------

One consideration is anonymizing the meeting minutes prior to attaching them. 

Human Ethics automatically flags a Conflict of Interest, which does not allow an IRB analyst to assign a committee member serving as a PI to be a reviewer and prevents them from voting on their own research, if the project meets the criteria for a full or convened review.

We've had only a few Board meetings that have reviewed committee member projects and will explore the block feature that Alicia mentioned in this exchange.  Thanks for the information!

Best,

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Dawn Leusner
IRB Manager
Educational Testing Service
Princeton, NJ 08541
irb@ets.org
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Original Message:
Sent: 06-15-2023 08:35
From: Leigh Schectman
Subject: Review of an IRB Submission by an IRB Committee Member

We recently had one of our IRB Committee Members submit an IRB submission.  The study had to go to the Full Board for review.  This member was not present for the meeting. I take meeting minutes outside the system and then attach them to the meeting afterwards.  However, once I attach these minutes, this committee member will have access to the minutes and the discussion of her study, right?  What has been the best practice for this situation?

Thank you.

------------------------------
Leigh Schectman
IRB Coordinator
California Lutheran University
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