Institutional Review Board (IRB)
The Institutional Review Board (IRB) is an administrative body established to protect the rights and welfare of human research subjects recruited to participate in research activities conducted under the auspices of the intuition with which it is affiliated.
All IRB committees are governed by Title 45 Part 46 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) (https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CFR-2016-title45-voll/pdf/CFR-2016-title45-voll-part46.pdf.) and are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP) within the U.S Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) (http://www.hhs.gov/ohrp). The DHHS requires institutions, who receive federal funding (ex.: federal financial aid to students), to have an IRB committee as do a number of other agencies. The IRB must follow the regulations, laws, and policies set down in the Belmont Report and the Nuremberg the (https:///www.hhs.gov/ohrp/regulations-and-policy/belmont-report/read-the-belmont-report/index.html) Code (https://history.nih.gov/display/history/Nuremberg+Code).
The purpose of the American University of Health Sciences Institutional Review Board is to:
- Ensure the protection and rights of human research subjects
- Review research involving human subjects
- Review federal mandates and policies regarding ethical standards for research
- Update guidelines and procedures according to these federal guidelines
- Disseminate policies and procedures for conducting ethical research to faculty and students
- Generate reports to faculty and administration regarding activities of the IRB committee