Among other things, 2021 will be known as the year of The Great Resignation, or in many sectors, the great retirement. Record numbers of employees left their jobs. Nearly four and a half million Americans left their jobs in September 2021, the highest number on record since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began collecting data 20 years […]

International organizations such as the World Economic Forum have been researching and analyzing the “future of work” and its implications for economies. Likewise, consulting firms have been predicting the important training needed to prepare workforces for new labor markets. Surveys of company leaders indicate an increasing need for employee upskilling and retraining. The COVID pandemic […]

A Medicare coverage analysis (MCA) for clinical trials evaluates which tests, procedures, and interventions will be associated with a clinical trial. This analysis results in a budget and plan for invoicing third party payers and sponsors. Clinical trials for devices differ from interventional trials for drugs in a few key ways that can impact the process […]

When investigators embark on designing, writing, and initiating the clinical trial, their responsibilities are just beginning. The FDA calls these investigators “sponsor-investigators (SIs)”. A sponsor-investigator is an individual who both initiates and conducts an investigation, and under whose immediate direction the investigational drug is administered or dispensed. In other words, in an investigator-initiated trial, the […]

An FDA audit or inspection can occur at any time, and sometimes with very little advance warning. The FDA conducts both announced and unannounced inspections of clinical investigator sites, typically under the following circumstances: to verify the accuracy and reliability of data that has been submitted to the agency; as a result of a complaint […]

One of the most critical first steps in preparing to launch a clinical trial is the development of a budget that covers expenses and compensates the research site. The budgeting process can be complex and requires detailed review of the protocol and a methodical line-by-line attention to detail. A properly negotiated budget ensures that a […]

Members of the U.S. House of Representatives have introduced updates to the 21st Century Cures Act, which was signed into law in December 2016. The proposed legislation coincides with a detailed concept paper the White House published Tuesday in Science Magazine outlining their vision for the new research agency. The 21st Century Cures Act, known as “Cures”, was […]

The COVID-19 pandemic had significant impacts on clinical trials and research programs. According to researchers at Penn State, over 80 percent of clinical trials were suspended between March 1 and April 26, 2020, mostly due to the pandemic. The impact was more substantial for government or academic-funded studies than for sponsored trials, according to their […]

The United States reached the one-year anniversary of the first confirmed case of COVID-19, on January 15. Even now, as the rollout of vaccinations is underway, institutions are still facing campus and facility closures. We cannot underestimate the impact of COVID-19 on clinical trials and the research community. Institutions have had to refocus resources toward […]

The disruption of clinical research as a result of COVID-19 cannot be overstated. Virtually everything about developing protocols and starting clinical trials has been upturned. In some cases, trials have been closed indefinitely. Others have been delayed or streamlined. Much of the interaction, such as IRB review meetings, has been shifted online, decentralized or outsourced […]

Even as research centers and academic institutions re-open after shutdowns due to COVID-19, many researchers are looking at ways to use remote technologies in their clinical trials. In South Carolina, for example, nicotine addiction researchers[1] are examining how to enroll smokers in their studies. They are evaluating e-consents, online surveys and questionnaires, as well as […]

Even as communities start the process of evaluating re-opening, many experts believe that a new normal will be with us for a long time. Physical distancing, face masks and ubiquitous alcohol gel will be part of daily life. The risk of recurrence spikes also looms ahead and threatens a return to stricter “stay at home” […]

The rapidly evolving federal, state and local policies regarding COVID-19 are impacting every walk of life in the United States and around the world. Companies, as well as academic and government researchers, have pivoted their focus on vaccines and possible treatments for the novel coronavirus. Health and research institutions are trying to keep up with […]

Earlier this year, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced the approval of a budget appropriation bill for funding through September 2020. In it, the NIH receives $41.68 billion in funding, an increase of $2.6 billion from FY 2019. For NIH, the new budget appropriation includes $500 million for the All of Us precision medicine study and a […]

One year has passed since the implementation of the Revised Common Rule, and many challenges and questions remain. While IRBs wait for promised guidance to materialize, we are left to interpret various aspects of the rule ourselves. This has resulted in variability across IRBs in how the new requirements are interpreted and operationalized. Variability in […]

Congratulations! You have gone through all the necessary steps to launch a clinical trial. Now it’s time to move on to the next one, right? Wrong! A successfully managed clinical trial requires ongoing tracking throughout its duration. Careful monitoring ensures your research institution remains compliant and that your site is compensated properly for the study. […]

Congratulations! You have gone through all the necessary steps to launch a clinical trial. Now it’s time to move on to the next one, right? Wrong! A successfully managed clinical trial requires ongoing tracking throughout its duration. Careful tracking ensures your research organization remains compliant and that your site is compensated properly for the study. […]

NEWS RELEASE BRANY (brany.com) has announced that Michael Belotto, PhD, MPH, CCRC, CCRA, will serve as chairperson for their social-behavioral IRB. The SBER IRB is comprised of a multidisciplinary group of experts in social and behavioral research, as well as human subject protection. “Dr. Belotto has been a great contributor to BRANY IRB’s success over the past […]

(Miami, FL) — The Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI Program), a division of BRANY, has announced new online courses and webinars designed to help research professionals understand and comply with regulatory requirements for clinical trials. The three courses and webinars address critical regulatory requirements: Transitioning research to the Revised Common Rule Protocol registration and disclosure […]

Clinical trial enrollment continues to be one of the most vexing challenges for research institutions and sponsors. Despite one quarter of sponsors’ clinical trial budgets being allocated to enrolling participants, half of research sites enroll only one or no patients in studies. Recruiting a diverse patient population is an even bigger challenge, with ethnic minorities, […]

Let’s face it. Every job has its challenges. However, burnout seems to be at an all-time epidemic level. A recent report from Harvard University highlighted physician burnout as a public health crisis. A keyword search for “preventing burnout” yields 15 million results in Google. In the United States, problems associated with burnout are estimated to […]

Many institutions still struggle to recruit and retain the best talent for these challenging positions. A changing regulatory landscape, increasingly complex protocols and a litany of deadlines all contribute to a stressful environment for these employees. Additionally, salaries have remained largely stagnant, creating a general sense of disengagement. Staff turnover can lead to interruption in […]

Public Posting An important provision in the Revised Common Rule is the requirement to post, to a publicly-available federal Web site, a copy of an IRB-approved version of the consent form that was used for enrollment purposes for each clinical trial conducted or supported by a federal department or agency. The Office for Human Research […]

The Revised Common Rule has a few important changes regarding consent waivers. Under the revised Common Rule, broad consent is provided as an alternative to the informed consent requirements for the storage, maintenance, and secondary research use of identifiable private information or identifiable biospecimens. If an individual was asked and refused to provide broad consent, […]

BRANY announced today the release of a new research protocol template specifically designed to address the unique needs of social-behavioral-education researchers, as part of Protocol Builder®, a secure, cloud-based protocol writing application. “Social and behavioral research is distinct from biomedical research,” says Jeffrey Cohen, PhD, a principal with HRP Consulting Group, also a division of […]