My First IRB Meeting

Last Wednesday, in the midst of the vaccinology course, I had a meeting with the Institutional Review Board (IRB) to get my research project approved. I had never been to an IRB meeting, but from what people have told me about typical IRB meetings, I thought that IRB committee would grill me on every little detail of the project. But then my project is an observational study using surveys, which means no risk to participants, so I wasn't too concerned.

When I arrived at the meeting place, there were a bunch of people waiting to be called in to get their study approved by the IRB. They all had a copy of their IRB application in hand, which made me realize that I probably should have printed a copy as well. Fortunately, I had a copy on my iPod Touch, so I quickly read through it to remind myself what exactly I'm supposed to be doing with my project. Well, apparently that didn't really matter, because the meeting turned out to be the easiest thing I've done for my project.

Basically, I walked into the room, which had desks and computers arranged into a very long rectangle, and I sat at the far end of the rectangle while one of the committee members summarized the objective of my study. I simply affirmed that that was what I was going to do by saying "yes." She noted that it's a well written study, another person representing the ethics committee said they had no objections or concerns, and someone at the other end of the room said, "Go ahead with your study." And that was it! It literally took no more than two minutes.

I wish all my future IRB meetings would be as easy as this one... but I suppose it can only get harder, like the one depicted below:

From ihasahotdog.com