OHSU

eCoI System

How to find the Conflict of Interest (eCoI) system in Big Brain?

  • When you log into Big Brain you'll most likely see the link right away under Required Courses at the top of that web page. If it is not there, then click on Course Catalog in the horizontal navigation bar at the very top, and you'll find the link there.

The "My Roles" Tab

  • Your roles in the first section are pre-chosen from your HR record or EPIC; if they are incorrect, the source (HR/ORACLE/EPIC) needs to be contacted for correction
    • You can check and uncheck roles in the second section as they apply to you. They might change from one year to the next. (For example, you had some research but it's finished now, so you're no longer an OHSU researcher; or, you just started doing research at OHSU.)
  • Correctly choosing your roles is important because that determines which questions you are asked, ensuring that you are reporting all the outside activities and financial interests that you are required to report.
    • If you are a researcher and don't choose the researcher role, for example, you will not be considered compliant for your conflict of interest in research disclosure
  • Manager/supervisor role: Note that this will be checked only if HR records indicate that you have supervisory responsibilities over other employees, whether or not you have the word manager or supervisor in your job title.

Saved information from prior submissions:

• The very first time you do a disclosure in eCoI, you'll have to fill in all the information relevant to you.

•  After the first time, then each time you start a new disclosure in eCoI, the form will have been already populated with all your answers from the last time you submitted a form (in the eCoI system). That means you save lots of time not having to recreate information, but it also means you must review it all, making additions, deletions and edits as needed.

      •  This is true even if you have submitted a form that was returned to you for revisions; in this case, you essentially begin a new (but pre-populated) form.

• The forms you submitted in the prior system (The CoIR Management System or Big Brain CoI) are also there for your review, but notice that questions are different in the new system, so be careful if you copy/paste.

Researchers – Projects:

  • Each time you do a disclosure, you are asked to document all research projects that are related to your financial interests. There are two ways to document projects:
    • You can manually enter the projects related to your financial interest, and answer the questions about them, by clicking on "enter project manually."
    • You can search for the projects related to your financial interest from a list. Some important tidbits about that list:
      • The list includes some (potentially frustrating) repetition: projects are repeated for different years (grants) and different sponsors (IRB studies). You just need to list a related project once.
      • The list should help remind you of projects in which you are involved but for which you are not the PI: this includes grants and IRB projects.If you don't find a particular project listed under your name in the list, try searching the list by entering the project's PI name. Then, just pick the relevant project and answer the questions.
      • If you have several projects related to the same financial interest, the questions will be repetitive.We are working on a feature to allow you to repeat answers, but we're not sure this will be available when you need to do your first disclosure. So, feel free to enter, for all the redundant questions, "see…." making clear reference to the project under which you've provided answers. Note that some of the answers might be different, though, for each project (e.g., your role, or sponsor or role of students)
  • The next time you do a CoI disclosure, all the projects you entered will be pre-populated on your form. You can then delete, add, edit as needed for updating.
  • You can also add projects, by going to the Projects Tab, anytime during the year, even if you are not doing a disclosure.Funded projects should be added during the year when they are related to your financial interest(s).By adding projects during the year, you will have less to do on your annual submission!

Researchers – Travel Disclosures:

  • Look for the airplane at the upper right hand of your eCoI home page.
  • If you are receiving PHS funding, then you must disclose travel; if you do not receive PHS funding, you do not need to disclose travel.
  • You can enter these anytime during the year, whether or not you are filing a disclosure. NIH regulations require that travel disclosures be made within 30 days of their occurrence; you can enter it even before it occurs, just to be on the safe side.

Contacts & Signers

Contacts - 

If you'd like to review the persons for whom you serve as contact, just go to the Reports Tab on your eCoI home page, and click on "As Contact."

Need to to look up personnel in the eCoI database? There are a few ways you will be able to do this.

  • Have your faculty add you as their contact in the eCoI system
  • Request access to the Big Brain as a manager for tracking compliance for your department ( this requires manager approval). If you are granted this access in Big Brain, you will be able to run a report for your ORG(s) that will give you a snapshot view of the compliance  status for all ( except students, which are excluded for FERPA reasons)
  • Use the ORIO compliance records tool ( available on the ozone, note that student records are excluded) to look people up individually http://ozone.ohsu.edu/research/rda/apps/eirbinfo/

Signers –

How to sign eCoI forms requiring your signature:

  1. Go to your own home page in eCoI. This is done by logging into Big Brain and clicking on Conflict of Interest (at/near the top of "Required Courses"), which will take you to your eCoI home page.
  2. Once there, you'll see a horizontal navigation pane. Go to "Reports" and click on "As Signer."
  3. There, you will find a list of all those who have designated you as signer. In the last column, a "yes" signifies persons whose forms await your review and signature. Click on the person's name whose form you wish to sign.
  4. Once at that person's record, look for "sign this form." Click on that, review form and, at the bottom, sign (or, add comments and then return form, if revisions are required).

More Resources

Throughout the eCoI form, clarifying information is presented as rollover text (look for underlined words and hover over them) and as links to websites.

· Integrity Office phone: 503 494 7887

· Conflict of Interest in research e-mail: coir@ohsu.edu