The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health
(DPH) Institutional Review Board (IRB), commonly referred to
as “the IRB,” is an independent oversight body of health
professionals and community representatives housed
within the Office of the IRB in DPH's Chief Science
Office (CSO). The DPH IRB was established by action of the
L.A. County Board of Supervisors in 1999. The IRB and
the Office of the IRB work together to ensure that all research
and related activities (such as evaluation, needs
assessments, non-legally mandated surveillance and some
Quality Assurance/Quality Improvement projects) involving DPH, Department of Health
Services (DHS) and certain Community-Based Organizations are
carried out in accordance with the highest scientific
and ethical standards and applicable federal and state
regulations (45 CFR 46).
The IRB helps protect the rights of participants in
research and related activities to:
- Make a voluntary decision on the basis of
complete and accurate information
whether or not to participate or to
continue participating
- Have their privacy respected and
their information kept confidential
- Participate only in research devoted
to answering significant questions using
sound scientific methods
- Have any risks related to
participation kept to a minimum and
balanced by potential benefits
The IRB’s core function is to perform an
administrative and ethical review of applications
submitted by investigators (or the DPH/DHS staff liaison
for outside and multi-agency collaborations). The
information presented on this website is intended to
help investigators navigate the process for obtaining
IRB approval.
Please note that we do not review clinical trials at
this time.
The IRB strives to improve not only the quality of
individual applications but also the richness of the
overall research environment by ensuring that
data-gathering activities adequately integrate
principles of ethics and equity. Therefore, the IRB
supports its core function through an active outreach,
consultation and training program. Please visit our
Trainings page for
information about upcoming workshops.
The DPH Office of the IRB is part of a national
system of IRBs housed within “human subjects protection
programs” (HRPPs) required by the federal government for
any institution or agency that receives federal funds
for biomedical, public health or social scientific
research. The basic requirements and standards for IRBs
are established in the Code of Federal Regulations and
are overseen and sometimes audited by three federal
offices, but each local IRB functions independently to
apply the federal minimum standards to its particular
local context.
Our IRB serves all LA County
Department of Public Health facilities, staff, patients, clients, and
databases. Our IRB also serves the Department of Health Services
(DHS) Health Services Administration, Ambulatory Care Network and
Correctional Health Services. Lastly, our IRB serves as the IRB of record
for certain community
partner organizations via memoranda of agreement. Consult with the Office of
the IRB about
coverage for a particular project if you are in doubt.
We have adapted the following policies for use by non-DPH investigators and
project leads. DPH staff should refer to the IRB’s intranet page for
internal Standards of Practice regarding research and related activities
reviewed by the IRB.
For more information regarding research and related activities involving
human subjects, please refer to the following DPH policy:
For more information regarding health
equity, diversity and inclusion in research and related activities reviewed
by the DPH IRB, please refer to the following DPH policy:
The Health Equity policy above
was informed by data collected through a health equity survey and key
informant interviews which were carried out as part of the IRB's Health
Equity Initiative (HEI). Please refer to our
Health Equity Initiative page for
more information about the HEI and the
efforts to develop this policy.
For more information regarding events that must be reported to the IRB,
please refer to the following DPH policy:
The Department of Health and Human
Services regulations for the protection
of human subjects in research (45 CFR
46) include five subparts. Subpart A,
referred to as "the Common Rule",
provides a robust set of protections for
research subjects; subparts B, C, and D
provide additional protections for
certain populations in research; and
subpart E provides requirements for IRB
registration.
Please click the following link
HHS.gov to view the federal
regulations for the protection of human
subjects in research.
The Belmont Report
The Belmont Report identifies the basic
ethical principles that should underlie
the conduct of biomedical and behavioral
research involving human subjects, and
it forms the foundation for the federal
human subjects regulations known as the
"Common Rule" (45 CFR 46). The Belmont
Report was written by the National
Commission for the Protection of Human
Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral
Research, and is a direct result of the
National Research Act of 1974.
Click
on the photo below to view a copy of the Belmont Report.
