Institutional Review Board

Eastern Maine Medical Center holds a Federal Wide Assurance with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service’s Office for Human Research Protections, and has one Institutional Review Board (IRB) registered under this assurance. The IRB is composed of physicians, pharmacists, scientists, ethicists, and community members, who meet once a month. Each IRB member reviews research protocols guided by the ethical principles in:

• The Belmont Report: Ethical Principles and Guidelines for the Protection of Human Subjects of Research, Report of the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research, or
  
• Other appropriate ethical standards recognized by Federal departments and agencies that have adopted the Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects, also known as the Common Rule.

The IRB reviews all protocols for scientific merit, assesses the risks and benefits to study participants, and reviews the informed consent documents to ensure that participants are provided with sufficient information to allow them to make an informed decision to participate in research.

A central IRB is utilized in our Pediatric Oncology trials and when the principal investigator is not an employee of Eastern Maine Medical Center.  

If you have further questions or would like to contact the Institutional Review Board directly, please send inquiry to Cindy Peterson at chpeterson@emh.org