For years, grantees have been encouraged to use a shared IRB in multi-site clinical trials as part of shared research networks at NCI, and it appears to increase efficiency without compromising protection. In early December 2014, NIH released a draft policy proposing that multi-site trials in the U.S. be required to use a single IRB. NCI has already conducted an analysis demonstrating that a single IRB decreases time and costs when compared to having individual IRB at each participating clinical site. To read and comment on the draft policy, click here. NIH is eliciting input until January 29, 2015. A commonly used model of joint IRB review is IRBshare, which according to its website “facilitates the sharing of full board approved documents between IRBs, accelerates the initial review process by enabling a temporary reliance between IRBs, and minimizes the need for all sites to conduct a full board review.” See the IRBshare website for details.
