Having a reliable electronic tracking system at GCS will be an important improvement. Using email to inform investigators as a proposal moves through GCS is a good idea. Delays at Human Subjects are a bigger problem, but for some investigators it is getting better. Some believe that the UW IRB process is excessive compared to other institutions. HS workload is huge and too much for existing staff.
Some problems are due to low quality of submission.
Turnover in committee and staff means there are always new requests for changes to the consent form. Because of differences in systems, the UW will take longer than a private vendor. It would be nice to have information to explain to sponsors why our IRB takes longer than some. It might be a good idea to have a committee just for industry-sponsored projects. There seems to be a national move to tighten up on all aspects of HS review.