Institutional Review
Institutional Review Board
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Institutional Review
Institutional Review Board
Institutional Review Board (IRB) is an oversight body governed by federal regulations
responsible for addressing ethical issues that arise in patient care and facilitating decision-
making that takes participants' principles, concerns, and interests into account in an institution.
Its primary functions are providing clinical consultation on ethics, formulating and reviewing
clinical ethics and institutional dogmas, and providing education about relevant issues in clinical
ethics. It has at least five members from diverse backgrounds, at least one member who has no
affiliations with the board, and one nonscientist member who collectively provides a
comprehensive and adequate analysis of human research and its institutional, legal, scientific,
and social consequences. In essence, Institutional Review Board is responsible for providing an
independent assessment to satisfy that a proposed human research is ethically acceptable, checks
clinical investigators' potential biases, and ensures adherence to laws and regulations designed to
safeguard human subjects. Any institution that carries out any form of social research should
establish an appropriate IRB that is consistent with internal and federal guidelines (WHO 2020).
Responsibilities of the Institutional Review Board
The IRB's primary responsibility is to protect human subjects’ rights and welfare in
research. According to the primary regulation governing the IRB, a human subject is a living
person about whom a researcher gets information either through intervention or interaction.
Samples from a subject often require IRB's review and approval, even if the researcher never
directly interact with the people. A vital role of the IRB is to verify that human research
participants have the necessary data before deciding to participate in the study, including
information about risks. The board does this through the informed consent process. The IRB also
ensures that the research is not unnecessarily risky and verifies that other safety measures are in