Tele-Ergonomics Assessment Methodologies Study

摘要

The two primary problems encountered in this study were with the Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval and unexpected staff turnover. This minimal risk proposal was submitted to the MRMC IRB for approval as CHPPM does not have an IRB. The MRMC IRB had been used as the primary IRB in the past and it was assumed that the MRMC IRB approval was all that would be required; however, after the proposal had been reviewed, corrected and re-submitted, the PI was informed that the proposal would need to be submitted to each of the IRBs for the target bases. Since time was a concern, it was decided to re-target bases under one IRB rather than submit the proposal to four different IRBs. The target bases were changed to Fort Drum, Fort Eustis, Fort Knox, Fort Lee and Fort Bragg. All of these bases fall under the WRAMC IRB. The proposal received WRAMC IRB approval without any problem. Unfortunately, this time delay could have been avoided if the PI had been informed that the MRMC approval alone would not suffice. The unexpected staff turnover created delays in the final analysis of the data. All of the data had been collected prior to the staff member's departure; however, not all of the data had been entered for analysis and only a very few analyses had been conducted.