Although designed to protect the rights and welfare of the research subjects, IRBs have been criticized on and off over the last 20 years over various aspects of clinical trials, and now the US Department of Health and Human Services has issued a proposal that would better protect clinical trial participants. After all, if the IRB won't protect participants, who will?

In this month's e-newsletter we take a look at two studies on IRBs. Both articles were written by Robert Klitzman, MD, of the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University where he is an Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and the Mailman School of Public Health.