"Members of the same club": challenges and decisions faced by US IRBs in identifying and managing conflicts of interest.

ABSTRACT:

Unlabelled

Conflicts of interest (COIs) in research have received increasing attention, but many questions arise about how Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) view and approach these.

Methods

I conducted in-depth interviews of 2 hours each with 46 US IRB chairs, administrators, and members, exploring COI and other issues related to research integrity. I contacted leaders of 60 IRBs (every fourth one among the top 240 institutions by NIH funding), and interviewed IRB leaders from 34 of these institutions (response rate = 55%). Data were analyzed using standard qualitative methods, informed by Grounded Theory.

Results

IRBs confront financial and non-financial COIs of PIs, institutions, and IRBs themselves. IRB members may seek to help, or compete with, principal investig

SUBMITTER: Klitzman R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3146515 | biostudies-literature | 2011

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature