News & Announcements

This month's bulleting covers some tips for external IRB studies as well as news about the upcoming State of the IRB Annual Town Hall on October 18th!

We have an updated External Reporting Process and Reportable New Information (RNI) Letter this month, and our new IRB Office Education Tool for Individuals and Groups is Live Now!

We have exciting new updates about CITI training and more this month! Come check it out!

Please check out the substantial edits we've made on the Incident Assessment Tool this month! We've also updated our eIRB tutorials regarding Reliance Agreements.

This month, we're presenting “Keeping Up with Compliance: A Peek into Post-Approval Monitoring Assessments”  as the IRB brown bag. Please join us! We have updated many of our documents as well as created a new post-approval monitoring checklist. Come check out our updates!

This month, we're presenting “Where Human Research Meets Integrity: What You Need to Know” as the IRB brown bag. Please join us. We made updates to provide new information about export controls, the new WebVPN and other document updates.

This month, the DEI group of IRB has released a new survey! Please help us by filling it out; we are also raffling off prizes for those who participate! We also have updated the following documents: Non-Committee Review Preparation – 031, Lapse (Expiration) of IRB Approval (Continuation of Current Participants) – 063, Annual HRPP Evaluations – 060  and Updated External IRB SOP – 092. The Office of Research has also posted additional PIPL guidance.

As a part of the Northwestern University IRB Office’s initiative to share timely resources and information with the research community, the IRB Bulletin is released at the beginning of each month and contains relevant updates from the IRB office.  The IRB Bulletin is also posted monthly on the IRB News & Announcements webpage. Please keep reading for this month’s updates.   

As a part of the Northwestern University IRB Office’s initiative to share timely resources and information with the research community, the IRB Bulletin is released at the beginning of each month and contains relevant updates from the IRB office.  The IRB Bulletin is also posted monthly on the IRB News & Announcements webpage. Please keep reading for this month’s updates.   

Thank you everyone who joined our Annual Open House in December! This month's IRB Brown will be an "Ask the IRB" so please register and submit your questions in advance. We also welcomed the following new staff: Laura Loeb, IRB Analyst to the Social and Behavioral Team; Brittane Foy, Senior IRB Compliance Analyst to the Compliance and Education Team; and Rita Knasel, IRB Reliance Analyst, to the Reliance Team.

The IRB Office updated numerous protocol templates and Liberty (“Libby”) Stouffer and Mila DeMarte, IRB Analysts, joined the Biomedical Team this month. The IRB Bulletin is sent monthly via the IRB listserv and IRB News & Announcements webpage.

The IRB Office has updated its Ongoing HRPP Evaluations (HRP-061). We are pleased to share the following IRB Office staff announcement: Christina Spicer has joined the team as IRB Reliance Analyst.

As a part of the Northwestern University IRB Office’s initiative to share timely resources and information with the research community, we are excited to welcome you to the new IRB Bulletin! The IRB Bulletin is released at the beginning of each month and contains relevant updates from the IRB office. The IRB Bulletin is sent via the IRB listserv and also posted monthly on the IRB News & Announcements webpage. Please keep reading for this month’s updates.

New IRB Office Guidance on Suicidality in Human Research Protocols (HRP-1915) was published this month, as well as substantial changes made to the Human Research Determination Form (HRP-503). Additionally, updates were made to the Supplemental Consent Language (HRP-1722), and Informed Consent and HIPAA Pages.

We are pleased to announce the following IRB Office staff announcement: Andres Gascon has joined the IRB Office as an Associate IRB Analyst.

The IRB Office has updated the COVID-19 Pre-Screener for pre-screening human research participants and any individual who must accompany the participant before they come on campus for in-person research study visits. Researchers who are not conducting study visits at a clinical facility may use this pre-screening tool when necessary. Researchers conducting study visits at a clinical facility should use the hospital/clinic’s screening protocol.

A new Biomedical Consent Form was published this month, in addition to other documents.

We are pleased to announce the following IRB Office staff announcements: Yasmeen Khan as IRB Compliance Analyst, Compliance and Education Team; John Munoz as IRB Analyst, Biomedical Team; Monica Kane as IRB Reliance Analyst Lead, Reliance Team; and Edeth Engel as Senior IRB Analyst, Social and Behavioral Team.

We are excited to announce the following IRB Office staff announcements: Elizabeth (Liz) Barajas as IRB Analyst, Biomedical Team, Alec Henderson as IRB Compliance Manager, Compliance and Education Team, and Lucas Sikorski as IRB Manager, Biomedical Team.

The Incident Assessment Tool is a new IRB Office guidance tool that assists the Principal Investigator in determining if an incident that occurs meets the IRB reporting criteria and how to robustly document the incident and any corrective/preventive measures.

The IRB Office updated Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).

We are pleased to announce the following IRB Office staff announcements: Angela May Baumgartner as Lead IRB Compliance Analyst, Compliance and Education Team; Katie Wright as IRB Analyst, Social and Behavioral Team; and Candy Melara as IRB Analyst, Biomedical Team.

Research Document Retention Requirements for Principal Investigators (HRP-1914) was published this month.

Guidance for Determining Engagement in Human Research at Northwestern University and Affiliated Institutions and Use of Northwestern University IRB Services Policies were published this month.