UVA's Institutional Review Board has two specialized sides to better serve the Biomedical Research and Behavioral Research communities.

 

UVA is a large institution.  To better serve the research community, the IRB specialized by having one side of the IRB focus on serving Biomedical Research and the other side of the IRB focus on Behavioral Research.  The goal is to provide the best review for both categories of research, and to offer specialized support for researchers based on their needs.

 

Therefore, the Human Research Protection Program (HRPP) at UVA includes teams for both sides of the IRB: 

 

Both sides of the IRB follow the federal regulations 45 CFR Part 46 HHS Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects.  However, the IRB-HSR side also serves as the HIPAA privacy board for health sciences research, and the IRB-SBS side specializes in regulations related to education research like FERPA.

 

Examples of Studies Reviewed by 

the Biomedical Side (IRB-HSR):  

Examples of Studies Reviewed by 

the Behavioral Side (IRB-SBS):

  • Medically invasive procedure
  • FDA regulated product
  • Use of UVA Health records
  • Biological Specimens
  • Exercise intervention/testing
  • Physiological/biomechanical measures
  • Direct recruitment of patients
  • Educational initiative
  • Self-disclosed health information
  • Human behavior
  • Interviews
  • Ethnography
  • Focus groups
  • Surveys

IRB Decision Tree

yes or no decision tree for the study examples above.

 

If you are still not certain which IRB to submit to after reviewing this information, please contact either side of the IRB for additional help: