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The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) has created a new measure now endorsed by the National Quality Forum (NQF) that will require health plans for the first time to report all readmissions that occur within 30 days of discharge something that happens to about a fifth of Medicare patients.
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Electronic health records (EHRs) offer a rich resource for facilitating clinical research by identifying patients who fit the eligibility requirements for a study and allowing researchers to collaborate with primary care physicians to recruit them.
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Some of the latest versions of electronic health records have created logistical dilemmas for research institutions as they find that providing access to information is more difficult for research monitors, researchers browsing for information about potential subject pools, and other activities.
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Research institutions occasionally have studies that involve a population or topic that brings up issues of social injustice, such as studies involving war refugee populations or pediatric HIV foster children.
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Research in environmental sciences, engineering and related fields can raise unique ethical issues that may be unfamiliar to many IRBs, particularly when it comes to community-based research.
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When reviewing cancer clinical trials, IRBs must weigh the risks and benefits to potential participants. But it's not always clear what participants themselves consider to be a risk or a benefit of their enrollment in a study.
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Sometimes an IRB's caseload grows so big and complex that new processes have to be implemented or the workload is unmanageable.
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If an IRB's policy and procedures manual needs updating, it might be time to write or revamp the section on criteria for review.
