Pursuing Passions Research
One piece of feedback we received from our providers was a desire to have a platform to conduct research. Dr. Pushkal Jadaun was essential in pushing for this and was a large part of the development of Camarena Health’s very own institutional Review Board. The Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) at any institution is a board, not a committee. It is assigned to safeguard human participants for practical and ethical reasons. As such, it means that members of an IRB are tasked with rendering decisions about the research they review.
Having a properly composed IRB makes research eligible for federal grants. All research (i.e., medical, behavioral, social, educational, or otherwise) that uses human participants requires a review by a properly composed IRB to be eligible for federal grant monies. By starting your own IRB, you have the potential to open up more possibilities for research projects, giving faculty more opportunities for professional development and collaboration with faculty at other institutions.
We wanted to be sure that if we developed a platform for research it would be ethical and well structured. We researched and were approved to put together our IRB at the end of 2019 consisting of a chair, Dr. Jaduan, co-chair, Dr. Ramirez, clinicians, informational technologists, and a community member.
