Educate Your IRB Posted on December 6, 2007 Celia B. Fisher (bio) recommends providing your IRB with details on possible risks in your study.

I think a common challenge for investigators, especially those working with high risk populations is that they’re very concerned that the IRB is going to reject their proposals or be overprotective toward participants and to assume that participants are at greater risk than the researcher typically assumes. And this is when you’re doing research that you imagine is simply a minor increase over minimal risk or just minimal risk itself.

What I have found and what I have advised is that scientists should see themselves as educators of the IRB. The IRB’s role is to protect the rights and welfare of research participants. If the scientist does not provide them with sufficient information about what the scientist knows about how they have minimized risk and maximized benefits, then the IRB is going to have to use its own resources that may be out of the discipline, but they’re there to imagine what are the possible risks.

So it’s always much better not to ignore, but to let the IRB know the detailed thinking that you have put in in terms of why this population is not at great risk.

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