Ethics & Human Research, July-August 2023

Antiracist Structural Intervention at the Emory University Institutional Review Board

Francois Rollin, Vanessa Van Doren, Jessica Alvarez, Rebecca Rousselle, Jada Bussey-Jones

Although racial and ethnic categories are social constructs without inherent biologic or genetic meaning, race and ethnicity impact health outcomes through racism. The use of racial categories in biomedical research often misattributes the cause of health inequities to genetic and inherent biological differences rather than to racism. Improving research practices around race and ethnicity is an urgent priority and requires education as well as structural change. We describe an evidence-based intervention for an institutional review board (IRB). Our IRB now requires all biomedical study protocols to define racial and ethnic classifications they plan to use, to state whether they are describing or explaining differences between groups, and to provide justification for any use of racial or ethnic group variables as covariates. This antiracist IRB intervention is an example of how research institutions can help ensure the scientific validity of studies and avoid the unscientific reification of race and ethnicity as inherently biological or genetic concepts.

Also in this issue:

The Essential Need for Trust When Transmission Risk Cannot Be Eliminated in HIV‐Remission Trials

Stuart Rennie, Gail Henderson, Nittaya Phanuphak, Kristine Kuczynski, Donn Colby, Nuchanart Ormsby, Eugene Kroon, Denise Hsu, Udom Likhitwonnawut, Sandhya Vasan, Carlo Sacdalan, Thidarat Jupimai, Oratai Butterworth, Holly Peay

Factors Associated with IRB Review Time in a Non‐Federally Funded Study Using an sIRB of Record

Erin Lamers-Johnson, Vanessa K. Will, Julie M. Long, Lindsay Woodcock, Kathryn Kelley, Alison L. Steiber, Elizabeth Yakes Jimenez

Translational Bioethics and Public Input

John H. Evans

Table of Contents • Trust and HIV‐transmission trials • Translational science and public input: Ethics & Human Research: Vol 45, No 4 (wiley.com)

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