Chattanooga Institutional Review Board
The UT College of Medicine Chattanooga and Erlanger have established an Institutional Review Board (IRB) to review research projects and ensure the protection of human subjects involved. The Chair of the IRB is Manoo Bhakta, MD. Questions about the IRB and informed consent can be addressed to Stacey Hendricks, CIM, IRB Administrator. Ms. Hendricks' office is located in Suite 100 of the Whitehall Building (across from Erlanger) with the Office of the Dean.
All requests for expedited and exempt review must be received by the IRB Administrator no later than 5:00 pm on Monday to be reviewed within the week. Requests received after 5:00 pm on Monday will be reviewed the following week; therefore, you can plan for all expedited and exempt reviews to be completed within 5 to 10 business days.
The IRB meets monthly to discuss requests that require full board review. The meetings occur on the fourth Wednesday of most months at 8:00 am and have been set in the Dean's Conference Room, Suite 100, in the Whitehall Building. (Exceptions are noted with an asterisk in the table below.) Due to the COVID-19 pandemic this year, meetings have been moved to a Zoom format until further notice.
Investigators are required to participate in these meetings to present new proposals and revisions to currently approved protocols. Investigators and research coordinators may attend to present continuing review information as well as serious adverse events reported on-site. Investigators will be scheduled according to the order requests are received. All requests must be received by noon on the submission deadline date.
You can also view IRB-related forms.
2024 – Full Board IRB Submission Deadlines and Meeting Dates
| IRB Submission Deadline | Meeting Dates |
| March 6, 2024 | March 27, 2024 |
| April 3, 2024 | April 24, 2024 |
| May 1, 2024 | May 22, 2024 |
| June 5, 2024 | June 26, 2024 |
| July 3, 2024 | July 24, 2024 |
| August 7, 2024 | August 28, 2024 |
| September 4, 2024 | September 25, 2024 |
| October 2, 2024 | October 23, 2024 |
| November 6, 2024 | November 27, 2024 |
| November 27, 2024 | December 18, 2024 |
| January 1, 2025 | January 22, 2025 |
Reminder:
The UTCOM IRB has transitioned to a new online submission platform, IRBNet. New and subsequent submissions must now be submitted through the new program portal. Instructions on how to register and make submissions as well as updated document checklists are located on the IRB guidance and policy tab on the UTCOMC research website. Please note submissions received by Monday at 5:00 p.m. will be reviewed by the end of that week. Submissions received after Monday will be reviewed by the end of the following week.
For initial submissions, please be aware, the initial application, exemption request, HIPAA and delegation log have been combined into one smart form. You will need to click on the start wizard tab under the designer tab once you begin entering a new project.
All other forms are located in the library tab along with consent form templates and other documents required for initial and subsequent submission. The form j (QI/AQ) has now been combined with the request for nonhuman subject research determination.