Peter, see responses below
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>One more time--is there an electronic bulletin board for IRB members,
>chairs, staffers?  Please send address.

send a message to xxxxxx@its.mcw.edu

The body of the message should contain the following:

subscribe MCWIRB (Your name)

>Would also like to hear from anyone whose school has an IRB chaired by
>a research nurse or other nondoctoral person.  I have to nominate IRB
>chair and members and would like to nominate a research nurse who's now
>on the committee as chair.  She has lots of experience with clinical
>trials, knows the mechanics of informed consent, IRB operations, etc.,
>knows the regs, and has lots of common sense.  A senior IRB member
>and former chair says he thinks she'll do fine, and will be accepted
>both by IRB members and investigators bringing projects to the committee.
>My boss, however, who must make the actual appointments, will be
>skeptical about a non physician, nondoctoral person chairing the
>commitee,and will ask about precedents.

My IRB has had the Director of Pharmacy as its chair in the past.  This
individual, who does not hold a doctorate, had been on the IRB as a member
for many years, and was well versed in IRB issues and procedures.  He had
enough grasp of the clinical issues to be able to sense when to bring in a
medical expert to consult on a decision which the IRB chair is required to
make.  In general, he did an outstanding job, and was well accepted by the
IRB and the research community for this role.

Len Paplauskas
Asst. VP for Research
UCONN Health Center