SMU Institutional Review Board Briefing to SMU Community on 1 March 2016
SMU Institutional Review Board - The 1st Institutional Review Board (IRB) Briefing to the SMU Community in 2016 was conducted on 1 March by the IRB Chairman, Professor Donald Lee Ferrin. He introduced a slide on the IRB committee members and explained the importance of good ethical practice, with some examples of past research studies. He also emphasized that having the research protocols reviewed by the IRB would protect the interests of the researchers and institution, the safety, welfare and rights of the research participants, and help to advance scientific and academic knowledge.
He further defined what constituted human participant research, the process of getting IRB approval, including the completion of Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) prior to IRB submission, and the types of information required in the IRB application and informed consent form. He also briefed the audience on the Principles of Belmont Report and SMU IRB’s review philosophy.
Prof Ferrin addressed some frequently asked questions on topics such as pilot testing, the recruitment of students as research participants, appropriate study compensation, and the requirements of debriefing. He also informed the audience of the requirements of the Singapore Personal Data Protection Act and the relevance of the Human Biomedical Research Act to SMU’s Research. Last but not the least, he concluded the briefing by asking the audience to contact SMU IRB at irb [at] smu.edu.sg if they have any questions or feedback on the IRB policies, procedures, forms and intranet. The next IRB briefing will be conducted in September 2016.