Status of Institutional Review Board Meetings Conducted Through Web Conference Systems in Japanese National University Hospitals During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Questionnaire Study

Abstract

Background With the global proliferation of the novel COVID-19 disease, conventionally conducting institutional review board (IRB) meetings has become a difficult task. Amid concerns about the suspension of drug development due to delays within IRBs, it has been suggested that IRB meetings should be temporarily conducted via the internet. Objective This study aimed to elucidate the current status of IRB meetings conducted through web conference systems. Methods A survey on conducting IRB meetings through web conference systems was administered to Japanese national university hospitals. Respondents were in charge of operating IRB offices at different universities. This study was not a randomized controlled trial. Results The survey was performed at 42 facilities between the end of May and early June, 2020, immediately after the state of emergency was lifted in Japan. The survey yielded a response rate of 74% (31/42). Additionally, while 68% (21/31) of facilities introduced web conference systems for IRB meetings, 13% (4/31) of the surveyed facilities postponed IRB meetings. Therefore, we conducted a further survey of 21 facilities that implemented web conference systems for IRB meetings. According to 71% (15/21) of the respondents, there was no financial burden for implementing these systems, as they were free of charge. In 90% (19/21) of the facilities, IRB meetings through web conference systems were already being conducted with personal electronic devices. Furthermore, in 48% (10/21) of facilities, a web conference system was used in conjunction with face-to-face meetings. Conclusions Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of reviews in clinical trial core hospitals has decreased. This suggests that the development of pharmaceuticals has stagnated because of COVID-19. According to 71% (15/21) of the respondents who conducted IRB meetings through web conference systems, the cost of introducing such meetings was US $0, showing a negligible financial burden. Moreover, it was shown that online deliberations could be carried out in the same manner as face-to-face meetings, as 86% (18/21) of facilities stated that the number of comments made by board members did not change. To improve the quality of IRB meetings conducted through web conference systems, it is necessary to further examine camera use and the content displayed on members’ screens during meetings. Further examination of all members who use web conference systems is required. Our measures for addressing the requests and problems identified in our study could potentially be considered protocols for future IRB meetings, when the COVID-19 pandemic has passed and face-to-face meetings are possible again. This study also highlights the importance of developing web conference systems for IRB meetings to respond to future unforeseen pandemics.

A scoping review of ethics review processes during public health emergencies in Africa

“…Maintaining the primacy of human rights and dignity in these situations can be challenging. Documented ethical issues in conducting research during PHEs include preparing RECs for accelerated review of studies, for instance through the establishment of ad hoc committees [3,6,[23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30]; ensuring appropriate research designs for scientific validity, social value and fair selection of participants [31]; promoting inclusive and adequate stakeholder engagement and informed consent processes [2,[32][33][34]; dealing with the specific ethical conundrum of clinical trials and human challenge studies during emergencies [35][36][37][38][39][40][41]; supporting appropriate data collection, storage and future use, including those relating to children [33,[42][43][44][45]; and maintaining mechanisms for ethics review whether in person or virtual [40,[46][47][48][49][50][51]. However, few studies specifically consider ethics review processes, procedures and governance frameworks for epidemics and public health emergencies in Africa [52].…”

A scoping review of the landscape of ethics review processes during public health emergencies in sub-Saharan Africa

“…Pandemic and epidemic contexts raise many complex and di cult dilemmas related to advancing scienti c inquiry while maintaining the primacy of human rights and dignity. Documented ethical issues in conducting research during PHEs include preparing RECs for accelerated review of studies, for instance through the establishment of ad hoc committees (3,(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19); ensuring appropriate research designs for scienti c validity, social value and fair selection of participants (20); promoting inclusive and adequate stakeholder engagement and informed consent processes (2,(21)(22)(23); dealing with speci c ethical conundrum of clinical trials and human challenge studies during emergencies (24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30); supporting appropriate data collection, storage and future use, including those relating to children (22,(31)(32)(33)(34); and maintaining mechanisms for ethics review, sometimes virtual, during PHEs (29,(35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40). However, few studies speci cally consider ethics review systems, processes, procedures and governance frameworks for epidemics and public health emergencies in Africa (41).…”

A web-based survey of educational opportunities of medical professionals based on changes in conference design during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…The increasing number of COVID-19 cases led to a rapid increase in non-face-to-face communication via web conferencing systems (Gates, 2020 ; Porpiglia et al, 2020 ). Moreover, the use of such systems is also increasing in medical care (Gunasekeran et al, 2020 ; Lonergan et al, 2020 ; Salisbury et al, 2020 ; Vandekerckhove et al, 2020 ; Yagi et al, 2020 ).…”