On Friday, November 3rd, both of UNLV’s IRBs – the Social/Behavioral IRB and Biomedical IRB – held an in-person retreat for all IRB members. The retreat was intended to bring our seasoned and newer IRB members together, to get to know one another better, and to engage in critical education and training to ensure our IRB members are best equipped to tackle the growing and increasingly complex research enterprise at UNLV.

The retreat included training for IRB members on the Cayuse submission system, orientation to resources available to members for conducting reviews, and illustrations of roles and responsibilities of various parties during the IRB review process.

The retreat also included several presentations on topics of interest. Our Data Privacy Officer, Maureen Shaw, presented on data privacy and HIPAA considerations for research. Interim Assistant Director for Human Subjects, Nyssa Towsley, presented on new ways to conceptualize vulnerability in research, and how to best protect vulnerable populations who participate in research. 

The highlight of the retreat was a panel discussion on working with LGBTQIA+ individuals in research. Two UNLV researchers, Dr. Sara Jordan and Dr. Jennifer Pharr, joined the panel and shared their expertise and experiences working closely with this population in their own research. The panel discussion focused on current impacts of anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation on participant safety and privacy/confidentiality considerations, best practices for collecting information on sexual orientation and gender identity, and regulatory requirements and flexibilities for working with LGBTQIA+ communities, especially LGBTQIA+ youth.

The Office of Research Integrity - Human Subjects (ORI-HS), plans to hold regular IRB member retreats, in order to keep building capacity and expertise among our dedicated and passionate IRB members. Holding such educational events is critical to ORI-HS’ mission of supporting and facilitating ethical research at UNLV.

Do you want to request an educational event from ORI-HS? We are available to provide various types of educational programming, such as in-services, guest lectures, and workshops. Reach out to IRB@unlv.edu to request educational programming for your class, department, or research team!