September 3, 2002

Dear Colleagues:

In the IRB Update provided to you in July, I mentioned the development of a new Web site for faculty to allow them to check the IRB status of their applications, documents received, and actions taken. The site is now available to faculty and to administrative staff who are authorized by a department to access protocol information for grant purposes.

Department administrators who wish access for their staff should send the list of individuals to Barbara Starklauf, Assistant Dean for Human Subjects Research (bstark@jhmi.edu), with justification for the request. Once such authorization has been granted, the departments are responsible for assuring that only authorized individuals have access to the site.

The Web address is: https://www.insidehopkinsmedicine.org/rpms/

Faculty members may search for and view only the protocols for which they are the listed principal investigator. Designated administrators may search for and view protocols for the department. Access requires use of a JHED ID. Individuals who do not have a JHED ID may request permission to access the site as an investigator, but must provide justification for this request. The information is located on a secure server that will allow access only from Hopkins' workstations. The site will provide a history of materials received and actions taken since January 1, 2002. Of course, the site is only as good as the data entered. The IRB staff have worked hard to ensure accurate data entry but please let us know if you have any concerns about the data. Questions regarding the data presented for individual protocols may be sent from the Search screen directly to the IRB e-mail sites using the "Questions and Comments" line at the top right of the page.

Questions from departmental administrative staff regarding the review process of the JHM IRBs should be sent directly to the respective Associate IRB Managers. All other Web sites containing information on protocols have been taken down from the Hopkins Intranet and the new site is the only one that will contain updated protocol specific information.

We believe that this new site will improve the information flow between investigators and the IRBs and help to facilitate the entire research review process. Thanks for your help and cooperation.

Sincerely yours,

Michael J. Klag, M.D., M.P.H.
Vice Dean for Clinical Investigation