Haitian IRB

Family Health Ministries Institutional Review Board in Haiti

Family Health Ministries' application for an Institutional Review Board/Institutional Ethics Committee in Haiti was approved by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in June 2008. This registration allows Haitian experts to approve FHM's clinical trials for new technology to serve Haitian patients. 

Voting members include four Haitians - a registered nurse, Hilda Alcindor; an attorney, Renald Louissant; an OB/GYN, Delson Merisier; and a pediatrician. Kern Mathieu; plus FHM's Board Chairman, David Walmer, Ph.D., M.D.

Kathy Walmer, Executive Director of FHM is the signatory official and Jackie Ndirangu, FHM's Research Coordinator, is Human Protections Administrator.

• Meetings

  The IRB meets three times a year.

• Reference Library

  An IRB is a committee of physicians, statisticians, researchers, community advocates, and others that ensures that a clinical trial is ethical and that the rights of study participants are protected. All clinical trials in the U.S. must be approved by an IRB before they begin.  FHM's Haitian IRB will ensure the same consideration for Haitians.

45CFR4 - US Regulations published in June 2005 for the Protection of Human Subjects

The Belmont Report - attempts to summarize the basic ethical principles identified by the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical
and Behavioral Research created in 1974 as a result of the US Congress' passing the National Research Act (Pub. L. 93348).

For more information, call Family Health Ministries in the US at 919-382-5500 or contact FHM's research director, Nicole Tinfo.