John C. Fletcher, University of Virginia. This paper examines the location of the Office for Protection from Research Risks (OPRR) within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and its effects on the mission of the Office.
C.K. Gunsalus, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This paper was commissioned to examine whether NBAC should recommend unifying federal oversight of federal and private human subjects research under a single government office such as the Office for Protection from Research Risks (OPRR).
Erica Heath, Independent Review Consulting, Inc. NBAC has requested information about the philosophical and practical issues related to the role of independent institutional review boards (IRBs) in the current medical research community. This paper provides a working definition of independent IRBs, describes their role within a broader framework of protections for human subjects and discusses the strengths and weaknesses of independent IRBs.