Human subjects system overhauled

Kayla Webley
2004-12-01
The Daily

The Human Subjects Division at the UW announced it will be making major changes in the program to ensure research requiring human subjects can be more efficiently completed.

Some of the major changes being implemented are an online managing system for the research application process, hiring additional staff members and moving to a new, larger office space, said Helen McGough, director of the Human Subjects Division.

These changes will allow the division to meet its long-term goal of a more efficient approval process for research applicants.

"The big problem was delays in review and approval of research involving human subjects," said McGough. "Our intent is to reduce turn-around time. Clearly it will take some time to implement the changes, but our long-term goal is to cut turn-around time by 50 percent."

The changes should ease frustrations that researchers currently have because of the time delay in their projects' approval.

"[Researchers] can't even start the project until the idea for the project is approved. The main driver has been wide-spread frustration in University researchers with long delays in getting approvals," said Craig Hogan, vice provost for research. "It should allow the research to get on with it rather than being held up with bureaucratic delays."

The division conducts reviews for a wide range of applicants for human subject research.

"We do a lot of these, many thousands, that need approval every year. It spans a huge range from undergraduates who are just looking at survey results, with a very low risk, all the way down to operating rooms trying new devices for the first time," said Hogan.

The division is faced with understaffing and a lack of resources, problems that should be eradicated when the changes are fully implemented.

"The Human Subjects Division has been really under-resourced. We haven't had enough staff, we have had very cramped quarters, no electronic managing system," said McGough.

The changes should specifically help student researchers who often cannot complete research given the short timeline they have at the UW.

"It is particularly difficult for students. They have a limited time in which to do research and they are restrained by the quarter system," said McGough. "They have always been our top priority, but because we have been understaffed and under-resourced it has been difficult. We hope that we will be able to cut their time down."

The UW is one of the first to implement an electronic system for the research application process, said McGough. The new system, called UWise, will save time by making it possible for applications to be created, routed, reviewed and managed online.

The new system will allow the applications, which previously had to be walked around to each individual reviewer, to be distributed online to the department or faculty for approval, said McGough.

"We're really looking forward to getting moving on all of these projects. The move is scheduled for next week, we are hiring and training new faculty, ... six departments are already in the electronic system," said McGough. "We're all working very hard to see that they get implemented efficiently and effectively."