Research Protocol Review: Every Submission on the Right Path Before the Board Meets

Thirty submissions, one board date and training that lapses

An IRB intake cycle sorts every new submission into a review path. Studies that fit an exempt category go one way, studies eligible for expedited review go to a designated reviewer, and the rest wait for the convened board. A submission is not complete until its consent documents match the protocol version and every listed investigator's human subjects training is current.

Protocol rows and training records sit in two lists on the same SharePoint site, consent documents sit in each protocol's Box folder, and the board meeting is an event on the IRB calendar. The coordinator's review worksheet is built from all three. When a training record lapses or the meeting moves, someone re-sorts the affected protocols by hand and fixes the worksheet afterward.

Who works in the room

Fin answers by default in the IRB room, so a question about a submission's path needs no mention. A message about the worksheet goes to Ada, and anything touching the meeting calendar or an investigator's inbox goes to Nova, which works through the coordinator's own Calendar and Gmail connections, checked on every call. When Fin changes a protocol's path, it mentions Nova in the same thread so the agenda and the notice follow.

How the intake cycle runs

The review policy is in Drive and summarized in the room guidelines. For the first pass, Fin splits the thirty consent document checks across parallel helpers and works from the one list they return. Every step stops at a person.

When an investigator, a study or the board date changes

Mid-cycle changes are usually narrow. The compliance specialist confirms that one investigator has renewed training, which should clear exactly the protocols where that person is listed. Two study teams withdraw. The chair reclassifies an expedited study to full board after reading its risk section. Fin re-sorts only the protocols each change names, so a study that was already approved does not move because a neighbor did.

The meeting date touches the most. When the December board moves from the 3rd to the 10th, Nova proposes the new event, the agenda change and one notice per affected investigator in the thread. The coordinator approves, Nova creates the new event, and the coordinator cancels the old one so no one keeps two dates. Ada then re-checks the worksheet lines that point at the meeting.

What the checks catch

• Training records mixed in with protocol rows, because both lists live on the same SharePoint site
• A training renewal that re-sorts every protocol instead of only those that list the renewed investigator
• A consent document in Box whose version does not match the protocol version under review
• A moved meeting that leaves the old calendar event beside the new one
• A withdrawn protocol still on the board agenda or counted at close-out

What stays with people

• Approving every review path before SharePoint is updated
• Reclassifying a study and every judgment about risk, which stay with the chair and the board
• Every notice to an investigator, which Nova drafts in Gmail and the coordinator sends
• Signing the cycle close-out

Integrations in this workflow

Kylon is not an IRB submission system and it does not replace one. It sits across the tools the IRB office already uses and keeps the coordination between them.

• Box
• Gmail
• Google Calendar
• Google Drive
• SharePoint
• Slack

• SharePoint holds the protocol submissions list and the investigator training list
• Box holds the consent documents filed with each protocol, read as evidence only
• Google Calendar carries the convened board meetings
• Gmail carries returns and meeting notices to investigators, each one a draft the coordinator sends
• Google Drive keeps the review policy and the coordinator's worksheet
• Slack is where study teams outside the room ask about status and report withdrawals

Where to start

Take one month of submissions. Connect the SharePoint site that holds your protocol and training lists, point the room at the Box folders for those protocols, and write the one rule in the room guidelines: an agent may propose a review path, and the coordinator approves every one before a row or the calendar changes.

Set it up with your agent

Open a new Room, add your agent and paste this prompt. It connects the tools, builds the App with you and asks for your rules one step at a time, and nothing goes out until a person approves it.