Schulman IRB, a central IRB in customer service and technology, announced that Judith Carrithers, JD, MPA, will join its Central Oncology Review (COR) division October 15, 2016, as director of Oncology Services. Launching later in 2016, COR will provide collaborative, flexible IRB review services for oncology research centers seeking a more advanced level of partnership and service integration from a central IRB.

Carrithers previously served as assistant dean for Human Research Protection and director of the Human Research Protection Program at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. In her new role, Carrithers will work with Michele Russell-Einhorn, vice president of Oncology Services at Schulman IRB and former senior director of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute's Office for Human Research Studies, to build and lead COR.

"Carrithers and I are intimately familiar with the unique requirements of cancer research centers and institutional IRBs," said Russell-Einhorn. "COR combines our deep understanding of this environment with Schulman IRB's best-in-class customer service and compliance record, providing cancer research centers and their IRBs with unparalleled transparency and collaboration throughout the review process."

Recent regulatory activities, like NIH's single IRB policy and HHS' proposed changes to the "Common Rule," will require multicenter research studies to be overseen by a central IRB. The challenges of managing a centralized IRB review process have encouraged many research institutions to seek working relationships with external IRBs.

"We know that a one-size-fits-all approach won't work for institutions," said Michael Woods, president and CEO at Schulman IRB. "COR will customize services to meet each institution's needs, providing levels of reliable, sophisticated support far beyond what is currently available in the central IRB space."

At Johns Hopkins, Carrithers was responsible for the direct operations of seven IRBs, and she helped develop and manage the Johns Hopkins Clinical Research Network collaboration between Johns Hopkins and five regional hospitals. She also coordinated with the University's General Counsel, IRB chairs and administration to develop policies and procedures for the IRBs, affiliated hospitals, and more than 20 ancillary review committees. She led initiatives to create more efficient and effective IRB processes at Johns Hopkins and also collaborated with Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China, to assess and improve that university's clinical research capabilities.