Health Equity
   

Institutional Review Board Links


How to get help
We encourage you to attend our training workshops on submitting an application to the IRB. We are also available to provide assistance via phone, Teams or email.



Adobe Reader
Note: PDF documents on this site were created using Adobe Acrobat 5.0 or later. If you aare using an earlier version of Adobe Acrobat Reader (4.x or less), document functionality may be reduced. Please Click Here

Health Equity and the IRB

As part of an effort to prioritize health equity in Los Angeles County, the Department of Public Health Institutional Review Board (IRB) is undertaking a Health Equity Initiative (HEI). Through this initiative, the IRB is working to ensure that principles of health equity such as community engagement and cultural and linguistic inclusion are incorporated into the research, evaluation, and other data-gathering activities that are conducted by the Department and our community partners.

UPDATE: Our HEI efforts will be recognized at the 2023 PRIM&R Annual Conference! Please click on the photo below to view our poster that will be presented at the conference in December.

Health Equity Initiative At a Glance

In Phase 1 of the HEI, interviews were completed with a group of key informants comprised of researchers from governmental, academic, and community-based entities located in and serving Los Angeles County.

Click on the photo below to view the full report that describes Phase 1 of the HEI.

Key Points from Interviews:

  • The research field must do a better job of engaging underserved communities throughout all aspects of the health research process, from the conception and design of a study to the analysis and dissemination of results after collection is complete.
  • Taking a community-based approach to health research can improve the engagement and investment of the community leading to a more equitable research process and the collection of data that is more representative of and relevant to the target communities.
  • Organizations that engage in health research should provide resources such as operational support (i.e., use of facilities or other infrastructure, personnel, etc.), adequate training, and funding to integrate a more equitable and community-based approach to their research activities.
  • Organizations that fund health research should incorporate health equity standards in their grant awards so that grantees can be held accountable for addressing issues of health equity in their research. Funders should also reassess the size of their awards to ensure that grantees have sufficient funding for activities such as evaluation, translation of study documents, implementing more equitable recruitment campaigns, providing more equitable study incentives, etc.

A summary report describing Phase 2 of the HEI data collection, our Health Equity survey, is in development. Please check back soon for updates.

Visit the Center for Health Equity website for more information about the Los Angeles County Dept. of Public Health's ongoing efforts to address health equity.

Our Mission

To ensure that investigators and project leads:

1) abide by federal regulations 45 CFR 46 to protect the health and safety of individuals

2) elevate the standards of research and related activities (e.g., “non-research” activities such as evaluation), by integrating principles of health equity, including the engagement of the community and equitable recruitment, and

3) ensure sound study design and methodology.

 
Public Health has made reasonable efforts to provide accurate translation. However, no computerized translation is perfect and is not intended to replace traditional translation methods. If questions arise concerning the accuracy of the information, please refer to the English edition of the website, which is the official version.
Los Angeles County Seal: Enriching lives through effective and caring services