To enhance support for the UCSF research enterprise and build the infrastructure needed to improve its services, the Office of Research continues to implement a comprehensive Quality Improvement Program (QIP).
This effort is intended to fulfill the vision of the Office of Research, which is "to provide timely, efficient and investigator-focused services through the use of fully integrated administrative systems and state-of-the-art technological tools."
Executive Vice Chancellor Eugene Washington, who oversees the Office of Research operation, has led the way to improve the quality of services provided in the more than 12 distinct UCSF programs that cover the entire process of research projects, from obtaining funding to approval of research programs, managing intellectual property rights and fostering faculty entrepreneurship.
The Office of Research embarked on the Quality Improvement Program last year and has already made significant progress.
Over the past decade, the research enterprise at UCSF has grown to be one of the top in the world both in its scientific achievements and the funding it receives. The expansion of the research enterprise, coupled with growing complexities of research and regulatory requirements, have combined to boost the support needed from services and programs offered through the Office of Research units.
Unfortunately, the period of growth in research enterprise has occurred during a time of reduced or stagnant support for administrative programs from state and federal sources. The combined effect of the growth in research and reduction in funding available for enhancing the infrastructure needed to support research has resulted in services that, at times, the faculty has considered inadequate.
Implementing QIP
A primary goal of the QIP is to improve support for the research enterprise, which will require the involvement and input of the research community. To meet this challenge,
Washington has appointed a Research Administration Board (RAB) with membership from faculty, academic departmental administrators and other central administrative units. As a representative body, the board is charged with assessing the QIP effort and to represent the interests of the faculty and department administrators with a principal focus of maintaining and enhancing the quality of services and administrative support for research at UCSF. The RAB is chaired by Professor Jeanine Wiener-Kronish, MD. Paulette Gregg, assistant director of Cardiovascular Research Institute, will serve as vice chair.
Taking a quality-improvement approach to administrative services has long been used in private sector operations, but represents a new concept for research support programs in an academic institution. The goal for each program in the Office of Research will be to:
- • Complete a systematic analysis of its processes
and outcomes to establish an effective quality improvement program,
- • Establish performance standards, design measurement
tools, incorporate technological advances, and begin monitoring and reporting
and
- • Measurably improve quality of life for both
the faculty and staff.
"UCSF is the fourth largest recipient of NIH dollars in the country; our research enterprise is fast approaching a billion dollars annually," says Jacqueline Hampton, who heads the QIP. "Think of the infrastructure - everything from customer service to IT - required to effectively support a billion dollar business. This is where the Office of Research needs to be and QIP is a key element in getting us there."
Improvements to Date
Over the past year, the QIP has focused on Contracts and Grants (C&G), Human Subject Protection Program (HSPP), Conflict of Interest and Institutional Animal Care and Use Program (IACUC). During its short duration, it has already yielded major improvements in various programs including:
- • Eliminating almost 6,000 sheets of "negative
declaration" statements for Federal Conflict of Interest,
- • Making major improvements in the approval
time for Committee on Human Research (CHR),
- • Improving workflow process in the IACUC,
further reducing the approval timelines,
- • Shifting from a paper process to an electronic
process for subcontracts, thereby yielding a significant time saving for the
recipient and a financial savings for C&G for mailing costs,
- • Creating benchmarks and tracking performance,
and
- • Using information technology to improve workflow
and communication.
Other initiatives include establishing a Business Research Unit of the Diabetes Center/Immune Tolerance Network. This Business Research Unit is a unique pilot being conducted in the Diabetes Center and the immune Tolerance Network research group (DC/ITN). The Office of Sponsored Research (OSR) has placed two employees in the DC/INT to work side-by-side with the employees of the center.
The creation of the Business Research Unit (BRU) has essentially eliminated the interaction with the central OSR offices, thus saving significant time for the investigators in proposal development and review, the submission of proposal to sponsors, the negotiations and acceptance of awards, and with subcontracting to outside institutions. If this pilot is successful, it will be expanded to other units.
"Our aim with the research BRU pilot is to think creatively about solving the PI's problems with the impersonal nature of the research bureaucracy," says Joyce Freedman, associate vice chancellor. "By placing central administrative personnel in with the units two things occur; the PI gets personal service and the central employees learn to appreciate the plight of the research faculty. Six months into this adventure, everyone is smiling."
HSPP has implemented a new pilot project with a number of departments for electronic pre-review program, which assists the faculty to receive input on the protocol prior to submitting it for full committee review. This allows the faculty to submit a copy of their protocol via email for pre-review by the HSPP staff who work with the faculty to address common issues that result in delays in protocol approval before they submit multiple copies for CHR processing. The pilot project results will be reviewed this coming April. Based on the results, it will be modified and expanded to all investigators.
"We are embarking on a new approach to research support that is based on partnership between administrative support units and faculty input," says Ara Tahmassian, PhD, associate vice chancellor, UCSF Office of Research. "This also includes investments in staff additions and training as well as deployment of technological solutions."
Source: Lisa Cisneros
