The Institutional Review Board (IRB) Office has been established to oversee the protection of human research subjects at Boston Children's Hospital. Children's Hospital is committed to safeguarding the rights and welfare of all children, adolescents, adults and family members who volunteer to participate in research. To this end, the IRB Office upholds the principles of the Belmont Report: Ethical Principles and Guidelines for the Protection of Human Subjects in Research, as the cornerstone of our mission, organization and daily activities.
The IRB Office is charged with two functions: To provide administrative support for Boston Children's Hospital's Institutional Review Board (IRB) which was established to assure the protection of all human subjects in research projects by reviewing and approving all research that involves human subjects conducted by anyone on the premises of or under the auspices of Children's Hospital. To provide a mechanism for continual education and improvement for the human research protection program at Children's Hospital through the Education and Quality Improvement Program (EQuIP). EQuIP collaborates with the IRB, other clinical research support departments and the research community to ensure compliance with federal regulations, state laws and BCH policies pertinent to the protection of human subjects in clinical research. EQuIP provides education to the IRB and research community, ranging from one-on-one training sessions to providing seminars and educational tools on a variety of IRB‑related topics. Further, EQuIP regularly assesses data from a variety of sources to ensure ongoing quality improvement in the IRB review process for the protection of human subjects in clinical research.
We welcome investigators and research staff to drop in with questions or set up meetings.
We can be reached by phone at 617-355-7052 or fax at 617-730-0226.
Mail for the IRB should only be sent to the following address:
Institutional Review Board (IRB)
Boston Children’s Hospital
Mailstop: BCH 3164
300 Longwood Avenue
Boston, MA 02115
The IRB Office is physically located at 401 Park Drive, 7th Floor East, Boston, MA 02115.
For general inquiries, please email irb@childrens.harvard.edu.