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The NJ Alliance for Clinical and Translational Science (NJ ACTS) experience: Responding at “warp speed” to COVID-19

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 April 2022

Pragya Thaman
Affiliation:
Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ, USA
Barbara Tafuto
Affiliation:
Department of Health Informatics, Rutgers School of Health Professions, Newark, NJ, USA NJ Alliance for Clinical and Translational Science (NJ ACTS), New Brunswick, NJ, USA
Céline Gélinas*
Affiliation:
Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine, and Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Piscataway, NJ, USA NJ Alliance for Clinical and Translational Science (NJ ACTS), New Brunswick, NJ, USA
Sunanda Gaur
Affiliation:
Department of Pediatrics, Clinical Research Center, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, NJ, USA NJ Alliance for Clinical and Translational Science (NJ ACTS), New Brunswick, NJ, USA
Judith A. Neubauer
Affiliation:
Department of Medicine, Division Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, NJ, USA NJ Alliance for Clinical and Translational Science (NJ ACTS), New Brunswick, NJ, USA
*
Address for correspondence: Céline Gélinas, PhD, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine, 679 Hoes Lane West, Room 137, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA. Email: gelinas@cabm.rutgers.edu
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Abstract

Introduction:

The COVID-19 pandemic’s need for life-saving treatments and a "warp speed" vaccine challenged the National Institutes of Health’s Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) recipients to improve their methods and processes in conducting clinical research. While CTSA recipient, New Jersey Alliance for Clinical and Translational Science (NJ ACTS), responded to this call to action with significant clinical research milestones, a comprehensive understanding of regulatory metrics during the COVID-19 pandemic is uncertain. The objective of this research is to identify, compare, and contrast metrics that illustrate the effectiveness of NJ ACTS’s research mobilization efforts during COVID-19.

Methods:

Data were collected from the Institutional Review Board (IRB), the Clinical Research Units (CRUs), and the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs (ORSP). IRB data detailed the volume and types of protocols approved and turnaround time (TAT) for approval in 2020 vs. 2019. CRU data examined study metrics of adult and pediatric clinical trials across 2018-2020. ORSP data documented awards received in 2019 and 2020

Results:

Analysis revealed a 95% increase in IRB-approved studies in 2020, with a significant decrease in TAT for COVID-19 studies. All CRUs observed a median 5.2-fold increase in the enrollment of adult and pediatric participants for COVID-19-related research. Study income was 106% and 196% greater than 2019 and 2018, respectively, with more than half funded through federal sponsors and 89% for COVID-19 trials. ORSP data revealed that 9% of awards and 26% of 2020 funding were COVID-19 studies.

Conclusion:

This study demonstrates that NJACTS effectively responded to challenges posed by the pandemic

Information

Type
Research Article
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Association for Clinical and Translational Science
Figure 0

Table 1. Total number of non-COVID-19 and COVID-19 protocols approved in 2019 and 2020 and the time to approval by review category

Figure 1

Fig. 1. Proportion of time during the Rutgers IRB protocol approval process associated with the study PI, the IRB reviewer, and IRB staff for IRB protocols approved in 2019 and 2020 for non-COVID-19 and COVID-19-related protocols. This excludes WIRB studies. PI: Principal Investigator; IRB: Institutional Review Board.

Figure 2

Fig. 2. Whisker plots of the total time to approval for full board IRB protocols reviewed by the Rutgers IRB and approved in 2019 and for non-COVID-19 protocols and COVID-19-related protocols approved in 2020. This excludes WIRB studies. Note that the median time to approval declined in 2020 compared to 2019 for both non-COVID-19 and COVID-19-related protocols with the shortest time to approval for the 2020 COVID-19 protocols. Additionally, observe that the reduction in time of the outliers and the upper and lower quartile values in 2020 compared to 2019. IRB: Institutional Review Board; TAT: Turnaround time to IRB approval.

Figure 3

Fig. 3. Volume of COVID-19 protocols by month and review type. The number of approved COVID-19-related IRB protocols increased abruptly after the March 16th COVID-19 Emergency Executive Order with a sustained increase over the next 15 months. Note that there were several modifications to previously approved IRB protocols that were submitted to include a focus on COVID-19. IRB: Institutional Review Board; WIRB: Western Institutional Review Board.

Figure 4

Fig. 4. Clinical Research Units subject enrollment for the period from March 1 to February 28 for the years 2018, 2019, and 2020. Note that while enrollment in non-COVID-19-related studies was paused in 2020, there was an increase in subject enrollment for all three of the major CRUs. NB: New Brunswick; CRU: Clinical Research Unit.