May 2025

The Organization confers the responsibility for establishing JHM IRB meeting procedures to the Vice Dean for Clinical Investigation (the Institutional Official), the OHSR Director of Operations, the  Associate Dean for Human Research Protections, and the Chairs of the JHM IRBs.  These procedures include limitations on the number of applications to be discussed at convened meetings, preparing the agendas for the meetings, assembling and distributing the meeting materials, selecting the primary reviewer, recording and processing the minutes of the meeting, and communicating with investigators.  Convened meetings for all JHM IRBs, except for JHM ACH IRB and the Executive IRB, shall occur weekly, unless circumstances dictate a meeting must be cancelled (examples: lack of quorum, University holidays, weather related changes, etc.)  JHM ACH IRB meetings will occur monthly. The Executive IRB will meet monthly and may meet more or less frequently as needed based on actions requiring review by the Executive IRB.

If it is determined in advance of a JHM IRB meeting that a quorum of members will not be available, the meeting will be cancelled. If a quorum is present at the beginning of the meeting but is lost during the meeting, no further actions will be taken and the agenda items that had not been voted on will be transferred to the next available meeting, and the loss of quorum will be documented in the minutes. The JHM IRB Chair and Compliance Associates will jointly determine whether a quorum is present.

The IRB Chair (or Co-Chair, when chairing a meeting), is expected to (i) review all convened agenda items prior to the meeting to provide oversight and facilitate comprehensive discussion and deliberation, (ii) lead the meeting as further described in JHM IRB Policy 108.1, and (iii) summarize the issues to be forwarded to the PI for response when a study is approved with administrative changes or tabled, and (iv) summarize the reasons for disapproval when a study is disapproved.

The JHM IRB meeting will begin when a quorum is present, including a non-scientific member. The Chair or Co-Chair will remind the Board members at the beginning of the meeting that they must disclose any conflicts of interest related to studies on the agenda and must leave the room for the final discussion and vote for any studies where a conflict has been identified.   The Chair or Co-Chair will open the meeting and call each application or item of business before the committee.  In the event that the Chair is called from the room or leaves early, the Co-Chair may continue the meeting.  If both the Chair and the Co-Chair are out of the room, the meeting may continue so long as a quorum exists and the Chair or Co-Chair appoint a member to conduct the meeting.