Issue link: https://tmcpulse.uberflip.com/i/339692
t m c » p u l s e | j u ly 2 0 1 4 2 PRESIDENT'S PERSPECTIVE TMC | PULSE Vol. 36 No. 9 July 2014 Robert C. Robbins, M.D. President and Chief Executive Officer Amanda D. Stein Editor astein@texasmedicalcenter.org Alex Orlando Staff Writer aorlando@texasmedicalcenter.org L. Morgan Farrar Business Strategist Contributing Photographers Scott Dalton Michael Stravato Terry Vine Photography NEWSROOM 713-791-8812 news@texasmedicalcenter.org ADVERTISING 713-791-8894 newsads@texasmedicalcenter.org Texas Medical Center Pulse is a monthly publication of the Texas Medical Center, in Houston, Texas. Permission from the editor is required to reprint any material. Editorial/advertising information available on request. Texas Medical Center News is a member of: Houston Press Club, American Medical Writers Association, Association of Healthcare Journalists, and American Advertising Federation I recently attended a meeting for the Clinical Research Design team—one of the six design team components of the Texas Medical Center Strategic Plan—and was impressed by many of the ideas that were presented there, not the least of which was a valuable initiative to develop a common TMC Institutional Review Board (IRB). We have the best and the brightest clinicians and researchers here within the Texas Medical Center, and the representative design team participants bring unique perspectives and ideas to the table. I had the opportunity to hear firsthand from the clinical research design team about the value of a common IRB, focused on multi-institutional collaboration and third-party clinical research within the medical center. All of our members are committed to providing the best possible patient care, and research is essential to that mission. In addition to the individual IRBs main- tained by the institution across the Texas Medical Center, we are exploring how a common IRB could help streamline multi-institutional research efforts and allow for a single point of contact for researchers and third parties wishing to conduct research within the medical center. This approach could potentially serve to offer a single entry point for innovation and industry, to marry great ideas and the col- lective passion of researchers across this campus. As all researchers and clinicians understand, the review process can be daunting. The goal of a common TMC IRB would be to streamline the process, and provide resources to assist investigators in shepherding research proposals to increase the research conducted and, in turn, discoveries made. ROBERT C. ROBBINS, M.D. President and Chief Executive Officer, Texas Medical Center