Update From the University Institutional Review Board (IRB)
By Robert Zeiler, PhD, Chair, Institutional Review Board
Clinical research at the university has been strong over the past few months. Two college of pharmacy faculty have proposed new research projects to the IRB for review and both were approved via the expedited route. The first study by Bin Deng with coinvestigators Ann Chung, Elaine Nguyen, Shankar Gollapudi and Transon Nguyen set out to study “Medication Adherence in a Homeless Population in Long Beach, CA.” The understanding is that chronic diseases require medication adherence for the treatment to be successful; medication nonadherence is very common. Medication nonadherence is defined as the extent to which a person’s behavior does not coincide with medical or health advice. This leads to poor health outcomes, admission to emergency rooms and overall increases in physician visits causing an increase in overall health care. At this point the IRB is requesting a final report of this study that was completed recently.
The second study by Youngil Chang with coinvestigator Helen Rhee is another new project that will be looking at “A Retrospective Investigation of Patient Outcomes Associated With the Use of Antibiotics in the Hospitalized Patients.” The aim of the study is first to investigate the association of electrolyte abnormalities and other factors with the high vancomycin levels typical among ICU patients to improve the management of vancomycin pharmacotherapy. The second aim of the study is to investigate the association of thrombocytopenia in the ICU patients with the use of piperacillin-tazobactam and/or different anticoagulants. Piperacillin/tazobactam has a broad spectrum of antibacterial activity encompassing most gram-positive and gram-negative aerobic and anaerobic bacteria. One of the potential side effects of piperacillin-tazobactam is thrombocytopenia (low number of platelets in the blood) and this can increase the risk of bleeding. This observation is also common amongst ICU patients.
Our hope is that other faculty from all colleges within the university will attempt to perform clinical research projects. If you have an idea for a project and want to discuss it further, please contact me.
Dr. Robert H. Zeiler
Chair, Institutional Review Board.
