The Cost of Institutional Review Boards in Academic Medical Centers

Abstract

TO THE EDITOR: An important concern with respect to protecting human research participants is that institutional review boards (IRBs) have insufficient resources.1 However, there are few reports of the actual costs of IRB review.2-4 To estimate the cost of operating academic IRBs in 2002, we undertook a survey with the support of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund. We surveyed 121 U.S. medical schools with active IRBs; 63 representative institutions responded