Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Light at the End of the Tunnel?


Despite no action, I do think about this blog. As I said in my last post, I have no clinical practice now, so there's not a lot of direct end-of-life news in my life at this moment.

I did pass my proposal defense and am an official "PhD Candidate" (my institution does not subscribe to using that silly/nifty Ph(c) designation).

Despite that major milestone back in October, I have been struggling with major rewrites that were required before I moved forward with the study...and are still a work in progress.

That said, I have been able to submit my study to the Institutional Review Board, or IRB (those folks who decide if you have built enough protection of human subjects into your study).

Now I am in waiting mode: waiting to hear from the analyst if they have any questions, waiting to hear if I will have to go through the full board review process or, as I expect get an "expedited review" meaning that it will be reviewed by one of the IRB co-chairs (a much quicker process). Then waiting to be told what needs to be fixed or clarified from that process.

Besides all the normal issues around waiting for someone else to do something, I have another issue. I plan to recruit my participants through area hospices. I am starting by working with one hospice, who has agreed to be involved. However, they have been acquired by another, larger medical institution, who may take over operations as early as June. When that happens, all bets are off. I may have to go though their internal IRB, which means another delay, and possibly a lot of money, as I don't think they would waive the fees as is the case at my home institution.

So I wait, and hope.

2 comments:

Ventura Hospice said...

Thanks for posting such useful items. I’ve been reading his blog with much interest. He’s certainly raised my awareness. This post is Well Organized and Informative.

Ventura Hospice said...

Thanks for posting such useful items. I’ve been reading his blog with much interest. He’s certainly raised my awareness. This post is Well Organized and Informative.