Institutional Review Board

The BayCare Health System Institutional Review Board (BCHS IRB) was established to review research studies involving human subjects, ensuring they meet ethical standards and protect the rights and welfare of participants within the BayCare Health System, by evaluating research protocols for compliance with federal regulations and institutional policies; essentially acting as a safeguard for human subjects in research conducted within BayCare Health System Institutional components and affiliated sites.
 
The BCHS IRB and Human Research Protection Program (HRPP) Office provides expert regulatory guidance and administrative support to BCHS-IRB, researchers, research support staff, and students.  The IRB/HRPP Office also serves as a liaison with central IRBs—both single and commercial—for instances where BCHS-IRB is the relying IRB. The IRB/HRPP Office maintains contractual relationships with BayCare’s commercial IRBs (Advarra & Western Copernicus Group—WCG), BayCare’s commercial Institutional Biosafety Committee (WCG), and single IRBs where required under the Common Rule.
 
This page is designed for researchers and their teams to get key information, schedules, forms and policies related to the BayCare IRB.

IRB Mission

The BCHS IRB is appointed to protect the rights and welfare of human subjects and support the institution's research mission. By requiring local review the Federal Government requires local responsibility that is both institutional and personal.

Researchers must respect and protect the rights and welfare of individuals recruited for, or participating in, research conducted by or under the protections of the Institution. By institution is meant any entity that is authorized by the Federal Government to conduct research. The IRB is established to be the agency within the institution that reviews and approves research involving humans. The IRB’s actions are guided by the following:

• To promote and protect the rights and welfare of human research participants
• To enable excellence in human research by providing timely and exceptional review of human research
• To provide professional guidance and support to our research community