Researchers interested in conducting research involving the Department of Human Services’ (DHS) clients, employees, or data must submit a research proposal to be approved by the DHS Institutional Review Board (IRB). The DHS IRB typically meets the third Wednesday of each month. The steps for submitting proposals for review are outlined in this document.
The Utah Department of Human Services (the “Department”) is supportive of quality research, especially when such research provides additional insights into the Department’s client populations and improves the Department’s services. The Department seeks, however, to protect the safety and privacy of any human subjects involved in these research projects. This policy and procedures are intended to assist the Department in reviewing research proposals, protecting individual rights, and complying with federal laws governing research with human subjects.
These procedures and instructions must be followed before the researcher begins any research involving human subjects. In addition, if a researcher proposes to change any research design, procedures or instruments previously approved by the DHS IRB, the researcher must secure approval for such changes before implementing them. Ongoing research must be reviewed by the appropriate authority at least once a year.
“Let us all remember that a slower progress in the conquest of disease would not threaten society, grievous as it is to those who deplore that particular disease be not yet conquered, but that society would in deed be threatened by the erosion of those moral values whose loss, possibly caused by too ruthless a pursuit of scientific progress, would make its most dazzling triumphs not worth having.”
-H. Jonas, in “Philosophical Reflections on Experimenting with Human Subjects”. Experimentation with Human Subjects (Paul A. Freund, ed.) New York: George Braziller, 1970.
