News & Announcements

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.