Educational Requirements

Each person conducting or assisting with a research project that involves human participants is first required to complete training on ethical and regulatory issues.

The course approved by TTUHSC El Paso is the web-based Human Subject Research course administered by the University of Miami through the Collaborative IRB Training Initiative (CITI, www.citiprogram.org).

Training regarding financial conflicts of interest in research is required of all investigators and research staff.

TTUHSC El Paso is also using CITI (www.citiprogram.org) for this training. Instructions for completing the training can be found here.

TTUHSC EP OP 73.09 requires that principal investigators and research staff update their financial disclosure forms on at least an annual basis, or within 30 days of a change in significant financial interests. The annual disclosure form may be accessed through iRIS via the Conflict of Interest Module under "My Workspaces" at the top left of the iRIS dashboard. Guides for the submission of the financial disclosure through iRIS can be located here.

To begin an online course, visit www.citiprogram.org and click on "Register". After selecting Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center - El Paso (not Texas Tech University) as your institution, you will be directed to create a username and password. You do not need an eRaider account to access or complete the training. If possible, please use your TTUHSC email address as your primary email and include a personal account as the secondary. 

If you have an existing CITI account, please use the “add an affiliation” links of your CITI homepage to affiliate your account with Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center - El Paso.

Once affiliated, select “View Courses” next to our institution name and then “Add a Course” to reach a listing of all courses that may be registered for.

An overall score of at least 80% is required to earn completion credit for an individual course. Upon completion of a course, you will be able to download a course transcript and may return at any time to print your completion report by clicking on “View previously completed coursework. TTUHSC El Paso receives a notification of your successful completion of a course and training records automatically transfer over to your iRIS account (if one exists) within approximately 3-4 hours.

All investigators and research staff are required to renew their training at regular intervals, training regarding the protection of human research subjects and most supplemental courses offered by CITI must be renewed at least once every three years. Conflict of Interest training must be renewed every four years.

The ability to submit new projects or continuing reviews of ongoing projects may be limited if required training items have lapsed. The renewal training is identical to the initially completed CITI course.

As part of the ongoing process to ensure proper informed consent procedures are being followed, all TTUHSC El Paso research personnel involved with research studies that will involve obtaining informed consent, will also be required to complete Informed Consent Training. For existing studies, this new requirement will be enforced at continuing 
review.

Information and access to the training is available online at: https://elpaso.ttuhsc.edu/research/compliance/Training.aspx. Please contact Josh Cardoza, the Research Compliance Officer at josue.cardoza@ttuhsc.edu with any training related questions. Certificates should be retained as proof that the training was completed.

The CRC course provides clinical research professionals with basic training tailored to the conduct of clinical trials. It includes the planning aspects of clinical trials, including the overall clinical trial process, associated activities, and the roles and responsibilities of the clinical team members. The CRC training is required of all research coordinators, and investigators/other research personnel who are performing the duties of a research coordinator. The training is available through CITI.

NIH guidelines now require Good Clinical Practice (GCP) training for NIH funded investigators and clinical trial site staff who are responsible for the conduct, management and oversight of NIH-funded clinical trials.

As of July 1, 2018, all TTUHSC El Paso research personnel involved with drug and/or device studies will also be required to complete GCP training, regardless of funding. For existing studies, this new requirement will be enforced at continuing review or by Sept. 1, 2018, whichever comes first. The training is available through CITI.

This in-depth course provides practical knowledge on how to develop, negotiate, and implement a clinical trial budget from the perspective of the clinical site. It details what goes into budget planning and reviews criteria for measuring direct and indirect costs. The course outlines how to assess clinical trial feasibility and calculate procedural costs, while offering a primer on negotiating study budgets in ways that produce fair and mutually acceptable outcomes.

If you are a Principal Investigator, Research Director, or Clinical Research Coordinator conducting industry-sponsored clinical trials, this course is now required. This training will need to be completed prior to submitting a clinical trial budget for review through Research Contracts and Agreements. Please visit https://www.citiprogram.org/ and use the “Add a Course” option under the TTUHSC El Paso affiliation; the course is listed as question number 10 on the enrollment page.

What if I have completed this CITI training course previously?

Many institutions use the CITI program to administrate required training courses and the same course is often used between different institutions. If you have completed a specific course (or modules within a course) within the past two years then you will automatically receive credit for those portions when enrolling for the same course under the TTUHSC El Paso affiliation in CITI.

How do I transfer records of previous CITI course completions to TTUHSC El Paso?

Simply affiliate your CITI account with TTUHSC El Paso and enroll for the course under our section. Upon enrolling, you will automatically be granted credit for the courses or modules/portions of courses that you have completed in the past two years. Please note that the Course ID must match for credit to be transferred; similar training with different course numbers is not accepted and will not transfer.

Why did my CITI course completion from a different institution not transfer to TTUHSC El Paso?

If you have followed the steps above and credit has not transferred, it may be due to the following 
reasons:

• The course completed at the other institution is not compatible with the TTUHSC El Paso
  version. This occurs when an institution opts for a highly customized course with institution specific content rather than the base course offered by CITI or simply uses a different base course with similar content. You will need to enroll for and complete our required course(s) in their entirety as these have been approved by our institutional bodies to comply with local/state/federal regulations.
• Not all modules required for the course by TTUHSC El Paso have been completed. For some courses, TTUHSC El Paso requires completion of supplementary modules beyond the base course offered by CITI. If you have completed the base course at another institution within the past two years you will receive credit for those portions upon enrollment and need only complete the additional modules. Upon completion of these, you will receive a new certificate for the entire course valid for the full renewal period.
• The course is expired or was completed more than two years ago. Due to the renewal periods set by our institution and federal regulations, training older than two years is not accepted for transfer to TTUHSC El Paso. 

CITI Course Transfer FAQ download