Implementing a Review Process to Facilitate and Prioritize COVID-19 Research: Staying One Step Ahead of the Pandemic

The first coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patient in the state of New Jersey (NJ) was admitted on March 2, 2020. With the number of hospitalized patients increasing exponentially in the following days and no established treatment approaches, research was to play a significant role in this fight. To facilitate review of all COVID-19 research proposals in a large health care network in NJ, we established the COVID-19 Research Review Committee (RRC) and implemented a peer-review process prior to the Institutional Review Board submission. The RRC was tasked with processing, soliciting, reviewing, and prioritizing research proposals and was comprised of a multidisciplinary group of reviewers. Within a 9-week period, three network-wide requests for proposals were released with 238 proposals submitted and 93 approved, an approval rate of 39%. The establishment of the RRC helped ensure scientific merit, better utilization of resources, collaborations across disciplines and network hospitals, and compliance with applicable regulatory and ethical standard.