Local Versus Central IRBs: What's The Difference?

By Julie Ozier, Senior Vice President for IRB Review

What are the differences between working with a local IRB and working with a central one? Since the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Common Rule agencies started requiring single institutional review board (IRB) review in multisite research, there have been conferences, workshops, blog posts, and other articles devoted to this topic.

Having worked in a local IRB at an academic medical center (AMC) for over 20 years, and now in my new role as Senior Vice President for IRB review at Advarra, I’m lucky to have gained perspectives on both types of IRBs. And when you come right down to it, I see the differences as minimal.