COVID-19 Information

• Our return-to-work plan
• Symptom Screening
• Checklist for day of cleaning and safety protocols.
• IRB information
• BU’s central repository for returning to campus during this time.
• Environmental Health and Safety information – including cleaning policies and return-to-work information.

Our return-to-work plan

While we are no longer required to have a return-to-work plan in place, we aren’t going quite back to normal yet. I will highlight the changes from ‘normal’ below.

1. Face masks are still required. MR safe masks are by the scrubs and are required for participants only. Masks for researchers are by the changing room and by the back entrance if needed. Participants will still be allowed to remove their mask once they are alone in the scanner room.
2. We will keep in place several of our enhanced cleaning procedures. Please see the handout for details. Cleaning Guidelines 061521 The highlights are:
   • Wash hands when you enter control room.
   • Clean all surfaces in the control room that you touched after the scan.
   • Clean surfaces in the magnet room, including head coil, button box, padding (not the white pillow), and inside of the bore.
   • Sanitize any surfaces that can’t be cleaned like the eyetracker mirror and Biopac straps.
   • Wipe down the changing room. If there are back-to-back scans, make sure you clean it up during your scan.
3. Any number of people can be in the control room. Please try to have a green badge and yellow badge present for scanning. If you do not have the required staff, please choose staff assistance when you book. We are happy help train or re-train lab members to help you reach the green/yellow badge staff needed.
4. We will alternate between the two shelves of pillows and the two lockers throughout the day.
5. Stephanie will generally help with scans on Monday and Tuesday, Shruthi with those on Thursday and Friday, and Wednesday both will be around.
6. You can use either the small consent room or the conference room for consenting. The screening forms and photocopier are still in the conference room.

In general, if a group or individual wants to continue a practice – such as social distancing or wearing a face shield, we will try to accommodate this. Please reach out.

Symptom screening

Participants no longer need to be screened for COVID symptoms. However, you are welcome to continue the process and the form is still up:

Updated Study Participant COVID-19 Symptom 090120

IRB information

Here is a handout for participants created by BU:
/researchsupport/files/2020/06/Participating-in-Research-During-COVID-19.pdf

Given you no longer have to submit a Return to Work plan, you should not have to update your IRB. However, if you decide to in order to add remote consenting or to edit your population, they suggest you should make changes contingent upon the pandemic. For instance, “During the COVID-19 pandemic, we will be restricting participant recruitment to the BU community”. This way you will not have to change it when the pandemic ends.

We recommend reaching out to your IRB representative if you have any questions.

Environmental Health and Safety information – including cleaning policies and return-to-work information

Here is the main website: /ehs/ehs-topics/ehs-covid-19-resources/