THE REVIEW PROCESS

Veterinary Consultation

Prior to protocols being submitted to the IACUC they must receive a veterinary consultation from one of the Animal Cares Services veterinarians.  Our new on-line system, myIACUC, forwards new and triennial submissions to veterinarians for review. Addendums for procedure changes to currently active protocols (approved before 1/2/08) must be submitted to the vconsult@grove.ufl.edu e-mail address for vet review.  The veterinarians are concerned with veterinary aspects of the protocol and may request changes or clarifications of specific issues.

When the veterinarians have completed their consultation they will forward the protocol to the IACUC.  The IACUC is obligated to ensure that any unresolved issues that arose during the veterinary consultation are fully resolved before final approval is issued.

IACUC Review

The IACUC review now begins.  The IACUC staff will triage the protocol ensuring that it is complete and verifying that the appropriate training modules have been completed.  Protocols are then sent for a one week period called member consideration.

• Member Consideration - this one week period allows all members of the Committee to read the protocols, communicate with other members if they have concerns and possibly call a protocol before the full Committee for review.
• Designated Review - After the Member Consideration period has passed, if a protocol has not been called before the full Committee, then the Chairperson will assign a single member of the committee to act as a Designated Reviewer.  This member acts for the entire committee and will negotiate an approvable verison of the protocol with the Principal Investigator.
• Full Committee Review - All protocols involving category 3 (unrelieved pain, distress or discomfort), deviations from the Guide (e.g. prolonged restraint, multiple major survival surgeries, food and/or fluid restriction), non-human primates and those forwarded to the Committee are reviewed during a convened meeting of the full Committee.  Meetings are scheduled for the first and third Tuesday of every month.
• Final Approval - occurs when the PI brings the signed approvable protocol to the IACUC.  This cannot occur until all issues brought up by the committee, all issues brought up by the veterinarians, all training issues and all Enviornmental Health and Safety issues have been appropriately resolved.   EH&S approval is required for studies involving BSL-2 or -3, recombinant DNA, transgenics, and toxins.
  
  Investigators should plan for at least 3 weeks between the time a protocol is submitted to the IACUC (after veterinary consultation) and the issuance of final approval.  Click here for a .pdf file outlining the review process.