Baylor Wins Award for Streamlining Research Protocols

Baylor College of Medicine has received the 2002 Award for Excellence in Human Research Protection from the Health Improvement Institute, a charitable organization dedicated to improving the quality and productivity of health care in the United States.

Baylor won the honor for creating a Web-based tool called the Biomedical Research Assurance Information Network, or BRAIN. BRAIN supports the creation, amending and auditing of research protocols, streamlining the research protocol approval process.

“Baylor College of Medicine is committed to improving health care through innovative clinical research,” said James Patrick, Ph.D., Baylor’s dean of research. “The electronic management of clinical research protocols developed at Baylor both educates and supports the clinical scientist and helps educate and protect the many individuals who volunteer to participate in this research.”

BRAIN has enabled the college to make its Institutional Review Board process more efficient and standardized. board members can carry on a dialogue with researchers seeking a new protocol and easily make recommendations or sign off on protocols online.

Once a researcher inputs a new protocol in the BRAIN system, it is assigned to one of six IRB committees at Baylor for review and approval.

“We feel the application has had wide-reaching impact on the research enterprise at large and we continue to develop the system to further enhance function,” said Denise Canales, director of Baylor’s research informatics.

The award recognizes research institutions that have found innovative ways to improve the process of protecting people who volunteer to participate in research. This is the inaugural year of the award.

– John Tyler

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