New Members Sought for Institutional Review Board

New Members Sought for Institutional Review Board

By AHSC Office of Public Affairs
Printer-friendly version PDF version

The Human Subjects Protection Program at The University of Arizona is seeking individuals – especially members of the Hispanic community – to serve on its Institutional Review Board.

The UA Human Subjects Protection Program protects the rights and welfare of human participants in, and ensures the integrity of, all UA research studies involving human participants. The board reviews studies that involve human participants (often referred to as “subjects”) and determines whether the studies should be given permission to proceed. Such review promotes ethically sound research and ensures that the rights, safety and welfare of all human research participants are protected.

Studies involving human participants are conducted by many UA colleges and departments, including the departments of psychology, sociology and anthropology and the colleges of medicine, nursing, pharmacy and public health. In addition, the board reviews studies proposed by researchers employed by University Medical Center and the Southern Arizona VA Health Care System.

Board members are volunteers and include representatives from the Tucson community and UA faculty members. Service as a member requires no special qualifications or restrictions with respect to educational background, degree or expertise. Members have included an artist, a massage therapist, chaplains, teachers and people with such diverse backgrounds as marketing, mathematics, Native American Studies, finance and anthropology.

The board has four committees:

  • The Human Subjects Committee performs initial review of non-oncology (non-cancer-related) and biomedical research.
  • The Continuing Review Committee handles continuing review of research that has received approval by the Human Subjects Committee. In addition, this board reviews all single-patient use and humanitarian use of medical devices.
  • The Social and Behavioral Sciences Committee performs initial and continuing review of behavioral/social science research.
  • The Biomedical Committee reviews mainly oncology research.

Committee members are asked to serve a minimum of three years. They meet on the UA campus every two weeks for one and a half to two and a half hours in the afternoon. Individuals who make a commitment to serve on one of the four committees go through an initial training followed by short monthly training sessions at committee meetings.

The UA Human Subjects Protection Program recently underwent a review by the Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs Inc., the national accreditation board for human subject protection programs. One of its recommendations was a greater representation of the Hispanic community.

For more information about serving as an board member, please contact Rebecca Dahl, director of the UA Human Subjects Protection Program, at 626-5925. For more information about the UA Human Subjects Protection Program and the Institutional Review Board, visit http://www.irb.arizona.edu.

UA@Work is produced by University Communications

Marshall Building, Suite 100. 845 N. Park Ave., Tucson, AZ 85719 (or) 
P.O. Box 210158B, Tucson, AZ 85721

T 520.621.1877  F 520.626.4121

Feedback University Privacy Statement 

2024 © The Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona