August 25, 2000

Elizabeth Hohmann, MD, an MGH infectious disease specialist, has been named chair and director of the institutional review board (IRB) for Partners HealthCare System. She will direct the IRBs at the MGH, BWH and affiliated sites, supervising the physician and administrative staffs, operations and policies of the Partners IRBs.

IRBs are responsible for reviewing all proposed research studies involving human subjects to ensure that they comply with ethical requirements and have a solid scientific basis. In recent years, the Partnerswide IRB process has been integrated to establish standard procedures and improve turnaround time. Currently there are two IRBs based at the MGH and two based at BWH, each of which may review studies based at either hospital. A separate IRB reviews cancer research studies conducted through Dana-Farber/Partners CancerCare.

"This is an important job that is worth doing very well," says Hohmann, who has previously chaired IRB panels at both the MGH and BWH. "Our institutions have very high standards for the conduct of clinical research, and I hope to continue this tradition. IRBs provide a forum in which exciting laboratory research advances meet clinical medicine for the first time. We need a vigorous review process to help investigators navigate what can be challenging waters. And I am aware that some investigators view the IRB process itself as one of the most difficult currents in those waters."

Ronald Newbower, PhD, MGH senior vice president for Research and Technology, says: "It is essential that we offer the strongest possible protections to those patients willing to help our physicians advance medical knowledge by participating in clinical research. I have the greatest faith that Dr. Hohmann will do a superb job for Partners, the hospitals and our investigator community."

Eugene Braunwald, MD — who as Harvard Medical School (HMS) faculty dean for Academic Programs at Partners has academic oversight of the Partners research program — says: "I am delighted that Dr. Hohmann is willing to step up to the plate in managing this difficult issue."

Greg Koski, PhD, MD, director of Human Research Affairs for the MGH and Partners, adds, "I have a very high regard for Libby's work, both within the IRB and as a physician and scientist." Koski, who next month begins his new role as director of the new Office for Human Research Protections in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, managed the systemwide integration that led to the current system.

Hohmann is a graduate of HMS, trained in internal medicine at Beth Israel Hospital and in infectious disease at the MGH. In addition to her clinical practice, she conducts research into the development of live attenuated bacterial vaccines and vaccine vectors.