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Division of Research - Wayne State University

Wayne State University COVID-19 Vice President for Research

Memo on Research Operations and COVID-19 Initiatives

April 17, 2020

 

The Office of the Vice President for Research (VPR) has taken specific steps to facilitate, coordinate and maximize the opportunity for impact of research and discovery initiatives addressing the COVID-19 pandemic.

The first step involves, where possible, the integration of COVID-19 basic and clinical research initiatives on campus.

Toward this end, we have collected a range of information on active and planned studies in this area, which will be posted on the research and discovery website later today.  In addition, we have established the brief survey below to capture all of the multiple activities in this area across campus.

If your WSU research team is involved with or planning to implement research related to COVID-19, please complete our survey that can be found here.

The second mechanism involves steps to coordinate clinical research activities involving clinical trials, specimen collections, behavioral studies and other studies involving human subjects and/or epidemiological data.  This mechanism has multiple components including the following.

  • Prioritizing review of COVID-19 clinical research studies through the Human Research Protection Program IRB  (https://research.wayne.edu/irb/coronavirus)
  • Guidelines for handling of biospecimens  (https://research.wayne.edu/oehs/bio-safety/covid-19)
  • Establishment of the COVID-19 Research Guidance and Coordination Advisory Committee for Clinical Research (see https://research.wayne.edu/irb/coronavirus) to provide initial two day turnaround screens of proposed studies prior to IRB review to assure cross-study coordination as appropriate, to maximize access to resources and to assure that the research teams are fully cognizant of the multiple factors that may impact the well being of subject participants in the current and evolving situations with the pandemic. 

In addition, the VPR has designated the Clinical Research Services Center and the program in Translational Sciences and Clinical Research Innovation as central hubs for providing a range of support resources (e.g. protocol development, biostatistics, epidemiology) and for coordinating relevant information as a Clinical Registry through the informatics platform established by the Clinical Research Service Center as a trusted, independent data source with appropriate data governance structure.  

Thank you for your consideration and engagement and as always -  please let me know any suggestions you may have as we all work to cover all bases going forward.

Steve