Bruce Gordon, M.D., a professor in pediatrics, hematology and oncology, has been named the new assistant vice chancellor for regulatory affairs at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
Dr. Gordon, who has been the chair of the Institutional Review Board (IRB) since 1996, and executive chair since 2011, will oversee key components of the human research protection program at UNMC, the University of Nebraska at Omaha and at Children's Hospital & Medical Center.
Currently Dr. Gordon is a professor of pediatrics at UNMC and an associate member of the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center. He also serves as an associate clinical professor in the department of pediatrics at Creighton University.
He received his bachelor’s degree in 1979 and medical degree in 1983 from Johns Hopkins University. He completed his residency and fellowship training at Case Western University and UNMC. He has been a faculty member at UNMC since 1989. He served as clinical director of the pediatric stem cell transplantation program from 1993 to 1997.
Dr. Gordon is chief of the division of pediatric hematology/oncology and stem cell transplantation at UNMC and Children's Hospital and Medical Center and will continue to serve in that capacity until a replacement is selected. He plans to continue to work as a pediatric oncologist specializing in bone marrow transplantation.
He is buoyed by the staff at the IRB, and credits Ernie Prentice, Ph.D., the longtime director of the Office of Regulatory Affairs, with creating a strong culture of attention to detail and attention to the big ethical picture surrounding the review of human subject research.
"I'm not really coming into a new situation," he said. "And I'm dealing with a group of really smart, really dedicated individuals, and that's Ernie's doing. He set up the office to function well, so I can step in very easily.”
The IRB is an independent committee charged by federal regulations with protecting the rights and welfare of human subjects of biomedical and behavioral and social science research. It carries out this responsibility by reviewing human subject research protocols to make sure that risks to participants are minimized and are acceptable in relation to possible benefits, that subject selection is fair and equitable, that informed consent is accurate and complete, and that the research is conducted in an ethical manner.
The research cannot begin until IRB approval is obtained, and even after approval, the IRB is responsible for periodically reviewing the ongoing research to assure that the rights and welfare of research participants continue to be appropriately protected.
The IRB reviews nearly 500 research studies every year and is comprised of health care personnel, other members of the scientific community, as well as non-scientists and members of the community not affiliated with the institution.
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