Update on issues affecting the College

Colleagues,

We write to update you on some issues affecting the College. We encourage you to offer feedback here on these or any issues of importance to you.

1. Budget – The national economic crisis continues to impact the state of Iowa and has prompted Governor Culver to initiate a 1.5 percent across-the-board spending cut to the state’s budget. This reduction affects the Regent’s Institutions and translates to a $7.5 million budget reduction for The University of Iowa.  Toward that end, the CCOM was advised by President Mason that it must cut one percent of its total general education fund (GEF) allocation for the remainder of fiscal year 2009. This reduction totals ~ $753,000 across the College. Accordingly, each department has been asked to prepare a strategy to cut one percent of its GEF allocation. We asked that plans focus on reducing expenses as opposed to shifting them to other sources such as the UIP. This is important because we anticipate further reductions for budget year 2010.

The CCOM was recently informed by the Provost that central UI administration would absorb some of the budget reductions, reducing our total cut to $271,000. Rather than ask departments to revisit the budget revisions, collegiate administration will retain the difference in anticipation of reductions in the 2010 budget year. The College will provide updated financial and budget information to you on an ongoing basis.

2. IRB – Faculty have expressed concern about the pace of approvals of research protocols involving human subjects. The IRB and its members work extremely hard to keep up with the protocols but it has been difficult to manage the volume and complexity of applications submitted by our faculty. The College recognizes the great need to change this process for the better for all and it is working with the IRBs and the Office of the Vice President for Research to enhance our ability to process applications.

The College, working with the IRB and the VPR, has facilitated some process changes to expedite reviews while maintaining the highest possible standards. Among those changes:

•Reduction in the number of MDs (four in addition to the chair) whose presence is required to obtain a quorum for action.

•A total of 11 MDs will be joined by faculty from the other health colleges to fill scientific roles on the IRBs. CCOM faculty time will be compensated by the Dean’s office. The goal is to develop a dedicated group of reviewers who have greater experience and continuity in the IRB review process and thus improve standardization and scheduling of the review process.

•A panel of consultants will be developed to address specific content questions outside the board members’ areas of expertise. These individuals will not be members of the IRB and will not attend meetings unless requested by the IRB.

•To address the issues of performing IRB approved community-based research, the IRB has solicited advice from other IRBs around the country and they have developed a process to move forward with community-based research. At this time, the IRB will serve as the IRB of record for community practices for minimal risk studies. The processes developed do require quite a bit of effort in the Human Subjects Office and the Vice President for Research Office has provided it with two new FTE’s to assist with community based research. These individuals will help the community practices develop procedures for conducting human research and agreements with the University to serve as the IRB of record, and will train individuals at these sites in the basics of performing human research. IRB will be providing more information for the research faculty as these processes are implemented.

Dr. Pat Winokur, the new Associate Dean for Clinical Research, has begun working with both the IRBs and the Human Subject Office to enhance oversight for human subjects research.

3. Epic implementation – Associate Vice President for Information Systems Lee Carmen reports two important upcoming “go live” launches: In February, Pharmacy, eMAR, and ICU flow sheets; and in May the full electronic medical record system and electronic order entry. Epic information and updates are available on the Point.

4. University of Iowa Institute for Biomedical Discovery (IIBD) – The preliminary phases of construction of the Iowa Institute for Biomedical Discovery will begin this summer. This facility, which was approved two years ago by the Board of Regents and which received a $30-million appropriation from the Iowa General Assembly, will extend south from the Carver Biomedical Research Building toward the Bowen Science Building. The 200,000 square feet of new research space will house wet labs, a vivarium, the Iowa Institute for Biomedical Imaging, offices, conference rooms, and a cafeteria. Conceptual drawing of the building.

The building has been designed to encourage high-risk, high-reward multidisciplinary research by investigators across the UI campus. Among the major research programs within the building will be heart and vascular, cancer, neurosciences, regenerative medicine, diabetes, and informatics.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 23rd, 2009 at 2:54 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.