UVA's IRB has specialized into two sides to better serve the Biomedical Research and Behavioral Research communities.
UVA is a large institution. To better serve the research community, the university decided years ago to have the IRB specialize by having one side of the IRB focus on serving Biomedical Research (primarily for the health system) and having the other side of the IRB focus on Behavioral Research (primarily for the academic side). The goal was to provide expert 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 offices 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 IRB-HSR office include: 
- Medically invasive procedure
- FDA regulated product
- Use of UVA Health records
- Biological Specimens
- Exercise intervention/testing
- Physiological/biomechanical measures
- Direct recruitment of patients
Examples of studies reviewed by the IRB-SBS office include:
- Educational initiative
- Self-disclosed health information
- Human behavior
- Interviews
- Ethnography
- Focus groups
- Surveys
If you are not sure which IRB you should submit to, please review the "IRB Determination Tree" below.
If you are still not certain which IRB to submit to after reviewing this information, please contact either IRB for additional help: