Anonymous self-evaluation of performance by ethics board members: A pilot study

Evaluating the effectiveness of a Reserch Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board (IRB) continues to be a difficult task. There are limited data that examine the perceptions of members of IRBs about their own performance or methods that would allow comparison among IRB panels at a single institution or between institutions. We piloted an anonymous survey instrument that examined members' attitudes about the efficiency, procedures and outcomes of IRB meetings and developed a process for presentation and discussion of these results with panel members. This quality improvement process was initially completed with one panel, and then replicated with two other IRB panels at one institution. This allowed comparison of perceived IRB performance across panels at a single institution. Further research is required to determine the association between IRB members' perception of performance and other measures of IRB effectiveness and to examine the perceived performance of IRBs by other research stakeholders.