One of the top concerns mentioned by faculty is long turnaround times for protocol approval. The IACUC members, in partnership with the IACUC office staff, DLAR, and the Office of Environmental Health and Safety (OEHS), have been working hard to reduce protocol turnaround time.  As a result of these combined efforts, the IACUC Office has implemented several process changes, including more efficient protocol pre-reviews, a more efficient reviewer assignment process, and both IACUC and OEHS reviewer deadlines.

These process improvements have led to an over 25% decrease in protocol turnaround time for protocols reviewed through the designated member review process. In the first eight months of fiscal year 2023, protocol turnaround time has gone down to 6.0 (SE=0.5) weeks, compared to 8.8 (SE=0.4) weeks for the 2022 fiscal year. These data are driven by a decrease in the pre-review turnaround time from 5 days (SE=0.7) to 1 day (SE=0.4) and overall reviewer turnaround time from 12.8 days (SE=4.3) to 7.5 days (SE=2.8).  As always, it is the goal of the IACUC and IACUC office to give faculty the best service possible, while meeting all regulatory requirements. The IACUC team will continue to focus on process improvements and tips to make the protocol review process simpler and more efficient. In the coming year, the IACUC office will analyze protocol amendment and full-committee protocol review times and streamline those as well. Questions or concerns can be addressed by the IACUC Office at IACUC@wayne.edu.