IREx sends an official documentation of reliance email to the Reviewing IRB Liaisons, Participating Site HRPP Liaisons and Study Team Members.
This email is sent after the Participating Site HRPP Liaison has accepted the Reviewing IRB’s study-specific reliance plan (SSRP). A PDF of the letter of reliance is attached to this email.
IREx allows Reviewing IRB Liaisons to upload draft documents such as draft protocols and informed consent documents during study creation. These documents are visible on the Reviewing IRB approvals tab to all Participating Sites and are labeled as drafts. Users receive a pop-up warning before they download the documents letting them know that the documents have not yet been approved by the sIRB.
IREx has been updated to support scenarios where the Reviewing IRB institution is not a participating research site or is not the lead site for a given study. During study creation, the sIRB can now indicate whether or not they are a participating site.
Reviewing IRB Liaisons can use the Add a Site button on the Edit Participating Sites window to list additional sites on their studies in IREx. Reviewing IRB Liaisons can also type in the institution name if they are not already listed in IREx and the IREx team will add the institution as a site to IREx (note: the site must still be onboarded to get access to IREx).
The IRB Reliance Exchange “IREx” (formerly known as SMART IRB Exchange) is a freely available, web-based portal that supports single IRB review documentation and communication for multi-center clinical trials. IREx is available to any institution with an FWA and can be used to document and support reliance for any study using reliance.
