Welcome to the Cambridge Health Alliance
Institutional Review Board

The purpose of the Institutional Review Board is to ensure that the rights and welfare of human subjects are protected while participating in research. In accordance with federal and state regulations, the IRB must review and approve research involving human subjects, both in advance and by periodic review, to promote fully informed and voluntary participation and to make certain the research does not expose human subjects to unreasonable or unnecessary risk.

In its deliberations, the IRB will use the ethical principles of "beneficence, respect for persons, and justice," detailed in the Belmont Report (1979) to make its determination. With representation from a wide range of scientific disciplines and from outside the academic community, the IRB gives rapid but individualized attention to the numerous and diverse research projects at Cambridge Health Alliance.