About
The Institutional Review Board (IRB) has been established in the Khesar Gyapo University of Medical Sciences of Bhutan (KGUMSB) mainly to facilitate ethical clearance for research1 involving human subjects/participants2. In addition, IRB anticipates to protect human subjects/participants in any research or study.
Since its establishment in July 2021, students, faculties of KGUMSB and its affiliated institutes, must obtain Ethical Approval from the IRB prior conducting the research/study. Any health or medical related study/research carried out without prior Ethical Approval will be considered void or nullified. In the interest of the human participants’ protection, IRB may take actions for such incident.
The IRB is a Human Research Ethics Committee, established under the auspices of KGUMSB responsible for reviewing an ethical acceptability of research. It has a special responsibility for oversight of the conduct of ethical reviews so that quality and consistency of its processes are maintained in compliance with professional and ethical standards of SIDCER-FERCAP3.
The primary role of IRB is to safeguard the rights, safety, dignity and well-being of all actual and potential research participants. This also includes protecting participants from physical, psychological, social/cultural, economic and legal risks of harm.
The guiding principles in making this decision are those of:
- I=Integrity
- R=Respect for persons
- B=Beneficence
- J=Justice
The Board Meets 4 times (January, March, July & November) in a year. All documents pertaining ethics application must reach the IRB Secretariat at least two weeks before the scheduled meetings. Full-Board reviews takes about a month and the expedited review process takes about two weeks duration, on average.
