Preparing the amendment submission package: tracked changes, summary letters, and updated consent forms
Teaches RCs to assemble complete, IRB-ready amendment submission packages using standardized checklists that adapt to central, local, and VA IRB requirements -- and to catch the errors that cause rejection before the package leaves the site.
A rejection that cost three weeks
The submission looked complete. The RC had assembled every document the central IRB required: the protocol with tracked changes, the clean version, the summary of changes letter, the updated informed consent form with revisions highlighted, and the IRB's modification request form. The package went out on a Monday afternoon. On Thursday, the IRB returned it -- not approved, not pending clarification, but rejected outright for resubmission.
The problem was the consent form. The tracked changes in the consent had been made against version 4.0, the version currently approved by the IRB. But the amendment being submitted was Amendment 3, which corresponded to protocol version 5.0 -- and protocol version 5.0 had already incorporated changes from Amendment 2 that were reflected in consent version 5.0, not version 4.0. The RC had used the wrong base version for the consent tracked changes. The IRB could not determine which consent revisions corresponded to the current amendment and which had already been reviewed and approved under the previous one.
The resubmission required reconstructing the consent tracked changes against the correct base version, which meant going back to the sponsor for the correct source file, re-marking all revisions, and resubmitting. The delay was three weeks -- three weeks during which the amendment could not be implemented, three weeks during which currently enrolled participants continued under the prior protocol version, and three weeks during which new participants could not be consented on the updated form.
This is, in my experience, the single most common cause of amendment submission rejection: a version mismatch in the consent document. And it is entirely preventable with a systematic approach to package assembly.
What you will learn
By the end of this lesson, you will be able to: