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IRB-01 is scheduled to meet once or twice each week. In addition, on an every-other-week basis, an additional meeting is held. Any issue requiring full board review may be brought to any of the weekly meetings. In addition, IRB-01 Executive Committee full board meetings are held on an as-needed basis throughout the year. IRB-02 is scheduled to meet the fourth week of the month. IRB-03 meetings are scheduled once per month.
Human Subjects Office staff, when assigning protocols to full board IRB meetings makes an initial assessment of the member expertise in relation to the particular protocols requiring review. For protocols involving vulnerable populations or requiring other expertise, Human Subjects Office staff schedules these protocols to meetings with IRB members having knowledge about or experience in working with vulnerable populations. The IRB Chair, or their designee, when assigning primary reviewers to protocols, also assesses the expertise of the IRB membership and can take actions if s/he determines additional expertise is required. If a Chair designee assigns primary reviewers to protocols, the IRB Chair will grant final approval of all primary reviewer assignments.
A full board meeting may be canceled by the chair due to:
- insufficient number of applications requiring full board review,
- University or VA holiday,
- inability to secure a quorum for attendance, or
- other reasons as may arise that make a scheduled meeting unnecessary or otherwise inappropriate.
Due to the volume for IRB-01, and the bi-monthly meetings for IRB-02, investigators are advised to allow a minimum of three to four weeks for an application to be scheduled for review at a convened meeting. IRB-03 investigators are advised to allow a minimum of four weeks for an application to be scheduled for review based on the IRB-03 meeting monthly schedule.