IREx now supports Letter of Indemnification (LOI) Tracking. The LOI is a unique agreement between the Reviewing IRB and participating institutions concerning indemnification and related terms, if required, when using the SMART IRB Agreement. Both Reviewing IRBs and Participating Sites can use IREx to easily track the status of their LOI agreements. Reviewing IRBs can track which institutions have signed their LOI and, if they choose to, store the executed agreements in IREx. Participating Sites can view which LOIs they have signed for other institutions.
Category Archives: Relying HRPP
New Feature: Institutional Profiles Download is Publicly Available
The IREx Institutional Profiles (IPs) are now publicly available for download as a PDF on the IREx Members Page of the public website. The new PDF will include a time-stamp for the date the IP was last updated.
The IREx IP contains basic information about an institution that others can use to determine if they feel comfortable relying on, or serving as the Reviewing IRB for, that institution. In addition to creating greater transparency among HRPPs and IRBs, making the IPs publically available will facilitate and streamline the single IRB process by making information more readily available. Moreover, this fosters high-quality information sharing between institutions.
New Feature: IRB Dashboards
IRB Dashboards provide a snapshot of an IRB Liaison’s studies and next steps in IREx — helping Reviewing IRBs and Participating Site HRPPs/IRBs manage their studies.
There are two dashboards: one for studies where your site is the Reviewing IRB and another showing when your site is listed as a Participating Site. On each, the last column on the dashboard shows the Liaison’s next step, if any are outstanding. The dashboards are sortable by any column, and clicking on the To Do will take you to the study where you can complete the step.
New Feature: Downloadable Study-Specific Reliance Plan (SSRP)
As requested, the Study-Specific Reliance Plan (SSRP) is now included as a PDF in the confirmation of reliance email sent to the Reviewing IRB and Participating Site HRPP. Participating Site HRPPs can also download a PDF of the SSRP from the site-specific info button on a given study.
New Feature: Downloadable Documentation of Reliance Letter
A PDF of the Official Documentation of Reliance Letter is now available as a download on the Site-Specific Info button on a given study. Participating Site HRPPs can also access this PDF from the Study-Specific Reliance Plan view. Click Site-Specific Info> View Reliances (SSRP)> Letter of Reliance. As always, the letter will continue to be included as a PDF in the confirmation of reliance email sent to the Reviewing IRB and Participating Site HRPP.
Update: Aligning the IREx Study-Specific Reliance Plan with the SMART IRB Agreement Implementation Checklist and Documentation Toolkit
IREx’s Study-Specific Reliance Plan (SSRP) was harmonized with the SMART IRB Agreement Implementation Checklist and Documentation Toolkit, which documents how the Reviewing IRB and Participating Site HRPPs will handle any flexible elements of the reliance agreement such as auditing, SOPs, insurance, external reporting, etc. This does not impact existing reliance relationships. The updated SSRP will only appear for studies created on or after April 25.
New Feature: Capture Study-Specific Local Context from Participating Sites
IREx released a local context/local considerations module to allow Reviewing IRBs to centrally capture study-specific local considerations for each site, using standardized surveys and questions aligned with national sIRB initiatives.
The local considerations module has two surveys: 1) The Human Research Protections (HRP) survey asks about requirements of any applicable state or local laws, regulations, institutional policies, standards, or other local factors, including local site ancillary reviews, relevant to the specific study or trial that would affect the conduct or approval of the research at your institution, as well as the consent form for this study. This is completed by the Participating Site HRPP Liaison; and 2) the PI survey asks about the conduct of the study at your site and is completed by the Participating Site PI. The Participating Site HRPP must verify the PI survey responses.
New Feature: Getting Started Checklists
IREx released user-specific checklists (“Getting Started Checklists”) on each study to help IRBs and study teams navigate their reliance-related steps. The checklists are role-specific and auto-hide once all the steps have been completed for a given study.
View Getting Started Checklists here.
New Feature: Multi-site Liaisons for users overseeing multiple FWAs
IREx supports institutions that oversee or provide HRPP functions for multiple FWAs using the Multi-Site Liaison feature. IRB/HRPP Liaisons can be set up as “Multi-Site Liaisons” to manage multiple FWAs with one user account. Multi-Site Liaisons can easily manage Institutional Profiles for each FWA, as well as indicate reliance and access approval documents each FWAs, even within a single study, in IREx. Contact the IREx team to be set up as a multi-site Liaison.
Find and List FWA Component Sites on a Study
IREx supports affiliated institutions that are listed as component sites on an FWA. Components do not have separate accounts in IREx. Instead, their access is managed by the FWA holder’s Liaison(s) and share an Institutional Profile with the FWA-holding institution. IRB Liaisons can manage their FWA components using the components button on the IREx homepage. To list a component site on a study, the Reviewing IRB or Study Manager can search for components by name or FWA number using the Add a Site box in the Edit Participating Site window.