New IRB System Is First Phase of Planned Rollout between Now and 2011
BEAVERTON, OR, January 27, 2009 – Click Commerce, an ITW company (NYSE: ITW), announced today that the University of South Florida (USF) will use Click Commerce’s eResearch Portal compliance software to fully automate Institutional Review Board (IRB) processes for human subject research. As one of the leading research universities with a comprehensive academic medical center in the southern United States, USF will streamline and strengthen IRB processes across the institution’s multiple research communities in the first of a series of research automation initiatives to be rolled out over the next two and a half years. The goal is to deliver a seamless e-research administration environment encompassing a wide range of research funding and compliance processes by 2011.
IRBs monitor the safe and ethical conduct of medical and behavioral research involving human participants. Click Commerce eResearch Portal allows USF to automate all IRB workflow processes, shorten turnaround times, eliminate routine errors and omissions, ensure secure collaboration, and alert researchers of approaching deadlines — all while using USF’s own forms and pre-review steps. Click’s configurable, web-based submissions system for IRB applications distributes data instantly among research teams throughout the institution regardless of location.
“We were looking for an automated system that would not only meet our immediate need to streamline and enhance our IRB processes, but would also be capable of expansion over time,” said Karen Holbrook, PhD, vice president for Research and Innovation at USF. “We envision a comprehensive e-research environment enabling secure collaboration, compliance readiness, and administrative visibility across the research enterprise, including areas such as clinical trials participant tracking, bio- and radiation safety oversight, and animal studies. Tightly integrating USF’s processes in all these areas with a centralized automation platform and a common interface will simplify the business of research and give us the flexibility of adding new functionality going forward.”
“Click Commerce will provide us the tools and practices necessary to grow and enhance our processes continuously while tying seamlessly to administrative business systems,” said Abdul Rao, MD, MA, DPhil, senior associate vice president for USF Health and medical director for clinical research at Tampa General Hospital. “Having a solution that can match the speed with which we want to change as an organization is vital and Click Commerce provides us the partner necessary for this goal.”
“We are pleased to see the commitment from a leader in social and biomedical research such as the University of South Florida to pursue the full potential of our eResearch Portal platform,” said Nick Stier, senior vice president in charge of Click Commerce’s Research and Healthcare division. “We look forward to this deepened collaboration with USF that will provide the research community another successful example of a comprehensive strategy addressing long-term institutional needs.”
The University of South Florida and many other leading healthcare research institutions use Click Commerce’s browser-based, secure eResearch Portal to automate a wide range of administrative processes, including those associated with Grants, IRBs, Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees (IACUC), Conflict of Interest (COI), and Clinical Trials Participant Tracking and Billing, among others.
About the University of South Florida
The University of South Florida is among the nation's top 63 public research universities and one of 39 community engaged public universities as designated by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. It is one of Florida's top three research universities. USF was awarded more than $360 million in research contracts and grants last year. The university offers 219 degree programs at the undergraduate, graduate, specialist and doctoral levels, including the doctor of medicine. The university has a $1.8 billion annual budget, an annual economic impact of $3.2 billion, and serves more than 45,000 students on campuses in Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota-Manatee and Lakeland. USF is a member of the Big East Athletic Conference.
About Click Commerce Research and Healthcare
Click Commerce Research and Healthcare is a leading provider of automated research administration and compliance systems to leading academic medical centers and research institutions such as Johns Hopkins University, Duke University and the University of Pittsburgh. More information can be found at research.clickcommerce.com.
