IRB Amendment

The last week or so has consisted of writing up the IRB amendment and finalizing it. I just finished up the corrections and sent in the final draft to Dr. Birkett to send to the IRB. Hopefully it will be approved soon and I will be able to start the research after spring break.


The actual writing of the amendment was pretty different than I imagined. First off, I only had to write about two simple things. I first had to summarize the requested changes to the study and then I had to provide the rationale for the changes.


It was surprising that it only took a short paragraph for each part. Equally surprising was how the response didn't have to be very formal. The first part actually said, "Summarize all requested changes in lay language," which meant just a casual explanation without extensive scientific vocabulary was needed.


It didn't take very long to write up the amendment that explained how I was joining the study and how my short-term data collection would differ from the already established long-term data collection. The corrections made by Dr. Birkett were straightforward and didn't take very long to add in.


With some luck, the approval should be just as quick and I should be finally starting research after the break as I have finished the other preliminary steps. Optimistically speaking, the next time I post, it should be about how the data collection has started and what the early set of data suggests.